0-KEE-PA, 


0-K  E  E-PA: 


A  RELIGIOUS    CEREMONY; 


AND   OTHER 


CUSTOMS  OF   THE   MANDANS 


BY 

GEORGE    OATLIN. 


OTitfj  anjtrtent  (Mourrt  EHuattattona. 


PHILADELPHIA : 
J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT    AND    CO. 

1867. 


PREFACE 


ALL  men  have,  or  ought  to  have,  some  peculiar  ambition  towards 
the  attainment  of  which  the  principal  energies  of  their  lives  are 
directed:  mine,  which  developed  itself  some  thirty  years  since,  has 
been  that  of  perpetuating  the  looks  and  customs  of  a  numerous  race 
of  human  beings  fast  passing  to  extinction.  In  this  pursuit  I 
have  passed  fourteen  years  of  my  life  amongst  the  various  tribes  of 
Indians  in  North,  South,  and  Central  America,  and  of  the  nume 
rous  customs  which  I  have  recorded,  there  is  nothing  else  so  peculiar 
and  surprising  as  the  0-kee-pa  of  the  Mandans,  the  subject  of  this 
book, — an  annual  ceremony,  which  I  described  in  a  former  publica 
tion,  but  which  description,  forming  but  an  item  in  a  large  work, 
was  necessarily  too  brief  to  give  all  the  connecting  links  of  a  custom 
which  derives  its  interest  from  being  understood  in  all  its  phases. 

This  publication,  therefore,  which  is  made  for  all  classes  of 
readers,  as  well  as  for  gentlemen  of  science  who  study,  not  the 
proprieties  of  man,  but  Man,  and  which  has  not  before  appeared  in 
all  its  parts,  is  made  from  a  sense  of  duty,  to  perpetuate  entire  a 
human  custom  of  extraordinary  interest,  peculiar  to  a  single  tribe 
in  America,  and  which  tribe,  as  will  be  seen,  is  now  extinct;  leaving 
in  my  hands  alone  chiefly,  what  has  been  preserved  of  their  personal 
looks  and  peculiar  modes. 

GEO-  CATLIN. 


LETTER  PROM  PRINCE  MAXIMILIAN  OP  NEUWIED, 

"Neuwied,  Prussia,  December  20,  I860. 

"To  MR.  GEORGE  CATLIN. 
"  Dear  Sir, 

"Your  letter  came  safely  to  hand,  and  revived  the  quite  forgotten 
recollections  of  my  stay  amongst  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  Missouri,  now 
thirty-three  years  past. 

"  The  Mandan  tribe,  which  we  both  have  known  so  well,  and  with  whom 
I  passed  a  whole  winter,  was  one  of  the  first  to  be  destroyed  by  a  terrible 
disease,  when  all  the  distinguished  chiefs,  Mah-to-toh-pa,  Char-a-ta,  Numa- 
ka-kie,  etc.  etc.,  died ;  and  it  is  doubtful  if  a  single  man  of  them  remained 
to  record  the  history,  customs,  and  religious  ideas  of  his  people. 

"Not  having  been,  like  yourself,  an  eye-witness  of  those  remarkable 
starvations  and  tortures  of  the  0-kee-pa,  but  having  arrived  later,  and  spent 
the  whole  of  the  winter  with  the  Mandans,  I  received  from  all  the  distin 
guished  chiefs,  and  from  Mr.  Kipp  (at  that  time  director  of  Fort  Clarke,  at  the 
Mandan  village,  and  an  excellent  interpreter  of  the  Mandan  language),  the 
most  detailed  and  complete  record -and  description  of  the  0-kee-pa  festival, 
where  the  young  men  suffered  a  great  deal ;  and  I  can  attest  your  relation 
of  it  to  be  a  correct  one,  after  all  that  I  heard  and  observed  myself. 

"  In  my  description  of  my  voyage  in  North  America  (English  edition) 
I  gave  a  very  detailed  description  of  the  0-kee-pa,  as  it  was  reported  to  me 
by  all  the  chiefs  and  Mr.  Kipp,  and  it  is  about  the  same  that  you  told, — 
and  nobody  would  doubt  our  veracity,  I  hope. 

"  I  know  most  of  the  American  works  published  on  the  American  Indians, 
and  I  possess  many  of  them  ;  but  it  would  be  a  labour  too  heavy  for  my 
age  of  eighty-five  years,  to  recapitulate  them  all. 

"  Schoolcraft  is  a  writer  who  knows  well  the  Indians  of  his  own  part  of 
the  country,  but  I  do  not  know  his  last  large  work  on  that  matter.  If  he 
should  doubt  what  we  have  both  told  in  our  works,  of  the  great  Medicine 
festivities  of  the  0-kee-pa,  he  would  be  wrong,  certainly. 

"If  my  statement,  as  that  of  a  witness,  could  be  of  use  to  you,  I  should 
be  very  pleased. 

"Your  obedient 

"(Signed)       MAX,  Prince  of  Neuwied." 

(vii) 


O-KEE-PA: 

A   BELIGIOUS   CEBEMONY   OF   THE   MANDANS. 


IN  a  narrative  of  fourteen  years'  travels  and  residence  amongst  the 
native  tribes  of  North  and  South  America,  entitled  l  Life  amongst 
the  Indians, ">  and  published  in  London  and  in  Paris,  several  years 
since,  I  gave  an  account  of  the  tribe  of  Mandans, — their  personal 
appearance,  character,  and  habits ;  and  briefly  alluded  to  the  singular 
and  unique  custom  which  is  now  to  be  described,  and  was  then 
omitted,  as  was  alleged,  for  want  of  sufficient  space  for  its  insertion, — 
the  "0-kee-pa,"  an  annual  religious  ceremony,  to  the  strict  observ 
ance  of  which  those  ignorant  and  superstitious  people  attributed  not 
only  their  enjoyment  in  life,  but  their  very  existence ;  for  traditions, 
their  only  history,  instructed  them  in  the  belief  that  the  singular 
forms  of  this  ceremony  produced  the  buifalos  for  their  supply  of  food, 
and  that  the  omission  of  this  annual  ceremony,  with  its  sacrifices 
made  to  the  waters,  would  bring  upon  them  a  repetition  of  the 
calamity  which  their  traditions  say  once  befell  them,  destroying  the 
whole  human  race,  excepting  one  man,  who  landed  from  his  canoe 
on  a  high  mountain  in  the  West. 

This  tradition,  however,  was  not  peculiar  to  the  Mandan  tribe,  for 
amongst  one  hundred  and  twenty  different  tribes  that  I  have  visited  in 

B 


0-KEE-PA,    OF    THE    MANDANS. 


North  and  South  and  Central  America,  not  a  tribe  exists  that  has  not 
related  to  me  distinct  or  vague  traditions  of  such  a  calamity,  in  which 
one,  or  three,  or  eight  persons  were  saved  above  the  waters,  on  the  top 
of  a  high  mountain.  Some  of  these,  at  the  base  of  the  Eocky  Moun 
tains  and  in  the  plains  of  Venezuela,  and  the  Pampa  del  Sacramento 
in  South  America,  make  annual  pilgrimages  to  the  fancied  summits 
where  the  antediluvian  species  were  saved  in  canoes  or  otherwise, 
and,  under  the  mysterious  regulations  of  their  medicine  (mystery) 
men,  tender  their  prayers  and  sacrifices  to  the  Great  Spirit,  to  en 
sure  their  exemption  from  a  similar  catastrophe. 

Indian  traditions  .are  generally  conflicting,  and  soon  run  into 
fable;  but  how  strong  a  proof  is  the  unanimous  tradition  of  the 
aboriginal  races  of  a  whole  continent,  of  such  an  event ! — how  strong 
a  corroboration  of  the  Mosaic  account, — and  what  an  unanswerable 
proof  that  anthropos  Americanus  is  an  antediluvian  race  !  And  how 
just  a  claim  does  it  lay,  with  the  various  modes  and  forms  which 
these  poor  people  practise  in  celebrating  that  event,  to  the  inquiries 
and  sympathies  of  the  philanthropic  and  Christian  (as  well  as  to 
the  scientific)  world ! 

Some  of  those  writers  who  have  endeavoured  to  trace  the  aborigines 
of  America  to  an  Asiatic  or  Egyptian  origin,  have  advanced  these  tra 
ditions  as  evidence  in  support  of  their  theories,  which  are,  as  yet, 
but  unconfirmed  hypotheses ;  and  as  there  is  not  yet  known  to  exist 
(as  I  shall  show,  but  not  in  this  place),  either  in  the  American  lan 
guages,  or  in  the  Mexican  or  Aztec,  or  other  monuments  of  these 
people,  one  single  proof  of  such  an  immigration  (though  it  could  have 
been  made),  these  traditions  as  yet  are  mine,  and  not  theirs, — are 
American, — indigenous,  and  not  exotic.  If  it  were  shown  that  inspired 
history  of  the  Deluge  and  of  the  Creation  restricted  those  events  to 
one  continent  alone,  "then  it  might  be  that  the  American  races  came 
from  the  Eastern  continent,  bringing  these  traditions  with  them; 
but  until  that  is  proved,  the  American  traditions  of  the  Deluge  are 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS..  3 

no  evidence  whatever  of  an  Eastern  origin.  If  it  were  so,  and  the 
aborigines  of  America  brought  their  traditions  of  the  Deluge  from 
the  East,  why  did  they  not  bring  inspired  history  of  the  Creation? 

Though  there  is  not  a  tribe  in  America  but  what  have  some 
theory  of  man's  creation,  there  is  not  one  amongst  them  all  that 
bears  the  slightest  resemblance  to  the  Mosaic  account.  How  strange 
is  this  if  these  people  came  from  the  country  where  inspiration 
was  prior  to  all  history !  The  Mandans  believed  they  were  created 
under  the  ground,  and  that  a  portion  of  their  people  reside  there 
yet.  The  Choctaws  assert  that  "they  were  created  craw-fish,  living 
alternately  under  the  ground  and  above  it,  as  they  chose;  and 
coming  out  at  their  little  holes  in  the  earth  to  get  the  warmth  of 
the  sun  one  sunny  day,  a  portion  of  the  tribe  was  driven  away 
and  could  not  return ;  they  built  the  Choctaw  village,  and  the  re 
mainder  of  the  tribe  are  still  living  under  the  ground." 

The  Sioux  relate  with  great  minuteness  their  traditions  of  the 
creation.  They  say  that  "the  Indians  were  all  made  from  the  red 
pipe-stone,  which  is  exactly  of  their  colour ;  that  the  Great  Spirit, 
at  a  subsequent  period,  called  all  the  tribes  together  at  the  red  pipe- 
stone  quarry,  and  told  them  this,  that  the  red  stone  was  their  flesh, 
and  that  they  must  use  it  for  their  pipes  only." 

Other  tribes  were  created  under  the  water ;  and  at  least  one  half 
of  the  tribes  in  America  represent  that  man  was  first  created  under 
the  ground,  or  in  the  rocky  caverns  of  the  mountains.  "Why  this 
diversity  of  theories  of  the  Creation,  if  these  people  brought  their  tra 
dition  of  the  Deluge  from  the  land  of  inspiration  ? 

This  interesting  subject,  too  intricate  for  full  discussion  in  this 
work,  will  be  further  incidentally  alluded  to  in  the  course  of  the 
following  relations. 

For  the  scientific,  who  look  amongst  these  native  people  chiefly 
for  shapes  of  their  skulls  and  for  analogies  to  foreign  races,  I  believe 
there  will  be  found  enough  in  the  following  description  of  their 

B  2 


4  O-KEE-PA,    OF    THE    MANDANS. 

religious  ceremonies  to  command  their  attention ;  and  for  the  purely 
philanthropic  and  religious  world,  whose  motives  are  love  and  sym 
pathy,  there  will  be  sufficient  to  excite  their  profoundest  astonish 
ment,  and  to  touch  their  hearts  with  pity. 

In  a  relation  so  singular,  and  apparently  incredible,  as  I  am  now 
to  make,  I  hope  the  reader  will  be  able  to  follow  me,  under  the 
conviction  that  I  am  representing  nothing  in  my  descriptions  or  in 
my  illustrations  but  what  I  saw,  and  that  I  had  by  my  side,  during 
the  four  days  of  these  scenes,  three  civilized  and  educated  men, 
who  gave  me  their  certificates  that  they  witnessed  with  me  all  these 
scenes  as  I  have  represented  them,  and  which  certificates,  with  other 
evidences,  will  be  produced  in  their  proper  places,  as  I  proceed. 

During  the  summer  of  1832  I  made  two  visits  to  the  tribe  of 
Manda^a  Indians,  all  living  in  one  village  of  earth-covered  wigwams, 
on  the  west  bank  of  the  Missouri  river,  eighteen  hundred  miles  above 
the  town  of  St.  Louis. 

Their  numbers  at  that  time  were  between  two  and  three  thousand, 
and  they  were  living  entirely  according  to  their  native  modes, 
having  had  no  other  civilized  people  residing  amongst  them  or  in 
their  vicinity,  that  we  know  of,  than  the  few  individuals  conduct 
ing  the  Missouri  Fur  Company's  business  with  them,  and  living  in  a 
trading-house  by  the  side  of  them. 

Two  exploring  parties  had  long  before  visited  the  Mandans,  but 
without  in  any  way  affecting  their  manners.  The  first  of  these,  in 
1738,  under  the  lead  of  the  Brothers  Verendrye,  Frenchmen,  who 
afterwards  ascended  the  Missouri  and  Saskachewan,  to  the  Eocky 
Mountains ;  and  the  other,  under  Lewis  and  Clark,  about  sixty  years 
afterwards. 

The  Mandans,  in  their  personal  appearance,  as  well  as  in  their 
modes,  had  many  peculiarities  different  from  the  other  tribes 
around  them.  In  stature  they  were  about  the  ordinary  size ;  they 
were  comfortably,  and  'in  many  instances  very  beautifully  clad  with 


I 

<&    VV  7/,rT 

-iv,X—          >"M  J  !^ 


i'M'O 


»  •;  ;.       / 


;   < 

!' 

^  *' 


Cathn  del 


Photo-  tith.  Sim onau  8b  Toove1 


O-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS.  5 

dresses  of  skins.  Both  women  and  men  wore  leggings  and  moccasins 
made  of  skins,  and  neatly  embroidered  with  dyed  porcupine  quills. 
Every  man  had  his  "  tunique  and  manteau  "  of  skins,  which  he  wore 
or  not  as  the  temperature  prompted ;  and  every  woman  wore  a  dress 
of  deer  or  antelope  skins,  covering  the  arms  to  the  elbows,  and  the 
person  from  the  throat  nearly  to  the  feet. 

In  complexion,  colour  of  hair,  and  eyes,  they  generally  bore  a 
family  resemblance  to  the  rest  of  the  American  tribes,  but  there 
were  exceptions,  constituting  perhaps  one-fifth  or  one  sixth-part  of 
the  tribe,  whose  complexions  'were  nearly  white,  with  hair  of  a 
silvery-grey  from  childhood  to  old  age,  their  eyes  light  blue,  their 
faces  oval,  devoid  of  the  salient  angles  so  strongly  characterizing  all 
the  other  American  tribes,  and  owing,  unquestionably,  to  the  infusion 
of  some  foreign  stock. 

Amongst  the  men,  practised  by  a  considerable  portion  of  them, 
was  a  mode  peculiar  to  the  tribe,  and  exceedingly  curious, — that  of 
cultivating  the  hair  to  fall,  spreading  over  their  backs,  to  their 
haunches,  and  oftentimes  as  low  as  the  calves  of  their  legs ;  divided  into 
flattened  masses  of  an  inch  or  more  in  breadth,  and  filled  at  intervals 
of  two  or  three  inches  with  hardened  glue  and  red  or  yellow  ochre. 

I  here  present  (Plate  I.)  three  of  my  Mandan  portraits  in  their 
ordinary  costume, — -a  chief,  a  warrior,  and  a  young  woman, — lest 
the  reader  should  form  a  wrong  opinion  of  their  usual  appearance, 
from  the  bizarre  effects  of  the  figures  disguised  with  clay  and  other 
pigments  in  the  ceremony  to  be  described  in  this  work. 

The  Mandans  (Nu-mah-M-kee,  pheasants,  as  they  called  them 
selves)  have  been  known  from  the  time  of  the  first  visits  made  to 
them  to  the  day  of  their  destruction,  as  one  of  the  most  friendly  and 
hospitable  tribes  on  the  United  States  frontier ;  and  it  had  become  a 
proverb  in  those  regions,  and  much  to  their  credit,  as  they  claimed, 
"that  no  Mandan  ever  killed  a  white  man." 

I  was  received  with  great  kindness  by  their  chiefs  and  by  the 


0  0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS. 

people,  and  afforded  every  facility  for  making  my  portraits  and 
other  designs  and  notes  on  their  customs;  and  from  Mr.  J.  Epp, 
the  conductor  of  the  Fur  Company's  affairs  at  that  post,  and  his 
interpreter,  I  was  enabled  to  obtain  the  most  complete  interpreta 
tion  of  chiefly  all  that  I  witnessed. 

I  had  heard,  long  before  I  reached  their  village,  of  their  "annual 
religious  ceremony,"  which  the  Mandans  call  "  0-Jcee-pa"  and  from 
Mr.  Kipp,  who  had  resided  several  years  with  Hhe  people,  a  partial 
account  of  it;  and  from  him  the  most  pressing  advice  to  remain 
until  the  ceremony  commenced,  as  he  believed  it  would  be  a  subject 
of  great  interest  to  me. 

I  resolved  to  await  its  approach,  and  in  the  meantime,  while  in 
quiring  of  one  of  the  chiefs  whose  portrait  I  was  painting,  when  this 
ceremony  was  to  begin,  he  replied  that  "  it  would  commence  as  soon 
as  the  willow-leaves  were  full  grown  under  the  bank  of  the  river." 

1  asked  him  why  the  willow  had  anything  to  do  with  it,  when  he 
again  replied,  "  The  twig  which  the  bird  brought  into  the  Big  Canoe 
was  a  willow  bough,  and  had  full-grown  leaves  on  it." 

It  will  here  be  for  the  reader  to  appreciate  the  surprise  with 
which  I  met  such  a  remark  from  the  lips  of  a  wild  man  in  the  heart 
of  an  Indian  country,  and  eighteen  hundred  miles  from  the  nearest 
civilization ;  and  the  eagerness  with  which  I  followed  up  my  in 
quiries  on  a  subject  so  unexpected  and  so  full  of  interest. 

I  inquired  of  him  what  bird  he  alluded  to,  which  he  found  diffi 
culty  in  making  me  understand,  and,  taking  me  by  the  arm,  he  con 
ducted  me  through  the  winding  avenues  of  the  village  until  he  dis 
covered  a  couple  of  mourning  doves  pecking  in  the  side  of  one  of  the 
earth-covered  wigwams,  and  pointing  to  them  said,  "  There  is  the 
bird ;  it  is  great  medicine"  It  then  occurred  to  me  that  on  my 
arrival  in  their  village  Mr.  Kipp  had  cautioned  me  against  harming 
these  birds,  which  were  numerous  in  the  village,  and  guarded  and  pro 
tected  with  a  superstitious  veneration  as  great  medicine  (or  mystery). 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS. 


The  reader  may  here  very  properly  inquire,  If  the  American 
traditions  of  the  Deluge  have  not  been  brought  from  the  Eastern 
Continent,  how  is  it  that  the  Mandans  have  the  Mosaic  account  of 
the  olive-branch  and  the  dove  ?  This  is  easily  explained ;  for  these 
terms,  and  "Big  Canoe,"  used  by  the  Mandans, form  no  part  of  the 
general  traditions,  being  entirely  unused  by,  and  unknown  to,  the 
other  tribes  of  the  American  Continent ;  but  have  been  introduced 
amongst  the  Mandans,  like  other  customs  that  will  be  described,  by 
some  errant  colony  of  Welsh,  or  other  civilized  people  who  have 
merged  into  the  Mandan  tribe,  and,  having  witnessed  the  Mandan 
ceremonies,  and  heard  their  traditions  of  the  Deluge,  have  described 
to  those  people  the  Mosaic  account,  and  from  which  the  Mandans 
have  appropriated  and  introduced  into  their  system  the  terms  "wil 
low  bough"  for  olive-branch,  and  "Big  Canoe"  for  the  Ark,  whilst 
all  the  other  tribes  which  speak  of  a  canoe  use  the  word  "canoe" 
only.  And  there  are  yet  many  tribes  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Eocky 
Mountains,  and  in  the  north  of  Mexico,  which,  without  impairing  in 
the  least  the  great  fact  of  the  tradition,  make  no  mention  of  a  canoe 
whatever,  but  represent  that  the  ancestor  or  ancestors  of  the  present 
human  race,  by  various  miraculous  modes,  which  they  describe, 
gained  the  summit  of  a  mountain  above  the  reach  of  the  waters  in 
which  the  rest  of  mankind  perished. 

In  Plate  II.  I  have  given  a  bird's-eye  view  of  a  section  of  the 
Mandan  village,  which  is  necessary  to  enable  the  reader  fully  to 
understand  the  ceremonies  to  be  described. 

As  I  have  before  said,  these  people  all  lived  in  one  village,  and 
their  wigwams  were  covered  with  earth, — they  were  all  of  one  form; 
the  frames  or  shells  constructed  of  timbers,  and  covered  with  a 
thatching  of  willow-boughs,  and  over  and  on  that,  with  a  foot  or  two 
in  thickness,  of  a  concrete  of  tough  clay  and  gravel,  which  became 
so  hard  as  to  admit  the  whole  group  of  inmates,  with  their  dogs,  to 
recline  upon  their  tops.  These  wigwams  varied  in  size  from  thirty 


8  O-KEE-PA,    OF  THE   MANDANS. 

to  sixty  feet  in  diameter,  were  perfectly  round,  and  often  contained 
from  twenty  to  thirty  persons  within. 

The  village  was  well  protected  in  front  by  a  high  and  preci 
pitous  rocky  bank  of  the  river ;  and,  in  the  rear,  by  a  stockade  of 
timbers  firmly  set  in  the  ground,  with  a  ditch  inside,  not  for  water, 
but  for  the  protection  of  the  warriors  who  occupied  it  when  firing 
their  arrows  between  the  pickets. 

In  this  view  the  "Medicine  Lodge"  as  it  is  termed,  and  the  "Big 
Canoe"  (or  symbol  of  the  "Ark")  are  conspicuous,  and  their  posi 
tions  should  be  borne  in  mind  during  the  descriptions  of  the  cere 
monies  that  are  to  be  given. 

The  "  Medicine  Lodge"  the  largest  in  the  village  and  seventy-five 
feet  in  diameter,  with  four  images  (sacrifices  of  different-coloured 
and  costly  cloths)  suspended  on  poles  above  it,  was  considered  by 
these  people  as  a  sort  of  temple,  held  as  strictly  sacred,  being  built 
and  used  solely  for  these  four  days'  ceremonies,  and  closed  during 
the  rest  of  the  year. 

In  an  open  area  in  the  centre  of  the  village  stands  the  Ark  (or 
"Big  Canoe") ,  around  which  a  great  proportion  of  their  ceremonies 
were  performed.  This  rude  symbol,  of  eight  or  ten  feet  in  height, 
was  constructed  of  planks  and  hoops,  having  somewhat  the  appear 
ance  of  a  large  hogshead  standing  on  its  end,  and  containing  some 
mysterious  things  which  none  but  the  medicine  men  were  allowed  to 
examine.  An  evidence  of  the  sacredness  of  this  object  was  the  fact 
that  though  it  had  stood,  no  doubt  for  many  years,  in  the  midst  and 
very  centre  of  the  village  population,  there  was  not  the  slightest 
discoverable  bruise  or  scratch  upon  it ! 

In  the  distance  in  this  view,  and  outside  of  the  picket,  is  seen 
a  portion  of  their  cemetery.  Their  dead,  partially  embalmed,  are 
tightly  wrapped  in  buffalo  hides,  softened  with  glue  and  water,  and 
placed  on  slight  scaffolds,  above  the  reach  of  animals  or  human 
hands,  each  body  having  its  separate  scaffold. 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE   MANDANS.  9 

The  0-Jcee-pa,  though,  in  many  respects  apparently  so  unlike  it, 
was  strictly  a  religious  ceremony ,  it  haying  been  conducted  in  most  of 
its  parts  with  the  solemnity  of  religious  worship,  with  abstinence, 
with  sacrifices,  and  with  prayer,  whilst  there  were  three  other  dis 
tinct  and  ostensible  objects  for  which  it  was  held. 

1st.  As  an  annual  celebration  of  the  event  of  the  "subsiding  of 
the  waters  "  of  the  Deluge,  of  which  they  had  a  distinct  tradition, 
and  which  in  their  language  they  called  "  Mee-ne-ro-lca-hd-sha "  (the 
settling  down  of  the  waters). 

2nd.  For  the  purpose  of  dancing  what  they  called  "  Bel-lohJc-na- 
pick  (the  bull-dance),  to  the  strict  performance  of  which  they  attri 
buted  the  coming  of  buffalos  to  supply  them  with  food  during  the 
ensuing  year. 

.  3rd.  For  the  purpose  of  conducting  the  young  men  who  had 
arrived  at  the  age  of  manhood  during  the  past  year,  through  an 
ordeal  of  privation  and  bodily  torture,  which,  while  it  was  supposed 
to  harden  their  muscles  and  prepare  them  for  extreme  endurance, 
enabled  their  chiefs,  who  were  spectators  of  the  scene,  to  decide  upon 
their  comparative  bodily  strength,  and  ability  to  endure  the  priva 
tions  and  sufferings  that  often  fall  to  the  lot  of  Indian  warriors, 
and  that  they  might  decide  who  amongst  the  young  men  was  the 
best  able  to  lead  a  war-party  in  an  extreme  exigency. 

The  season  having  arrived  for  the  holding  of  these  ceremonies, 
the  leading  medicine  (mystery)  man  of  the  tribe  presented  himself 
on  the  top  of  a  wigwam  one  morning  before  sunrise,  and  haranguing 
the  people  told  them  that  a  he  discovered  something  very  strange  in 
the  western  horizon,  and  he  believed  that  at  the  rising  of  the  sun 
a  great  white  man  would  enter  the  village  from  the  west  and  open 
the  Medicine  Lodge" 

In  a  few  moments  the  tops  of  the  wigwams,  and  all  other  eleva 
tions,  were  covered  with  men,  women,  and  children  on  the  look-out ; 
and  at  the  moment  the  rays  of  the  sun  shed  their  first  light  over  the 


10  0-KEE-PA,    OF    THE    MANDANS. 

prairies  and  back  of  the  village,  a  simultaneous  shout  was  raised, 
and  in  a  few  minutes  all  voices  were  united  in  yells  and  mournful 
cries,  and  with  them  the  barking  and  howling  of  dogs ;  all  were  in 
motion  and  apparent  alarm,  preparing  their  weapons  and  securing 
their  horses,  as  if  an  enemy  were  rushing  on  them  to  take  them  by 
storm. 

All  eyes  were  at  this  time  directed  to  the  prairie,  where,  at  the 
distance  of  a  mile  or  so  from  the  village,  a  solitary  human  figure  was 
seen  descending  the  prairie  hills  and  approaching  the  village  in  a 
straight  line,  until  he  reached  the  picket,  where  a  formidable  array 
of  shields  and  spears  was  ready  to  receive  him.  A  large  body  of 
warriors  was  drawn  up  in  battle-array,  when  their  leader  advanced 
and  called  out  to  the  stranger  to  make  his  errand  known,  and  to  tell 
from  whence  he  came.  He  replied  that  he  had  come  from  the  high 
mountains  in  the  west,  where  he  resided, — that  he  had  come  for  the 
purpose  of  opening  the  Medicine  Lodge  of  the  Mandans,  and  that  he 
must  have  uninterrupted  access  to  it,  or  certain  destruction  would 
be  the  fate  of  the  whole  tribe. 

The  head  chief  and  the  council  of  chiefs,  who  were  at  that  mo 
ment  assembled  in  the  council-house,  with  their  faces  painted  black, 
were  sent  for,  and  soon  made  their  appearance  in  a  body  at  the 
picket,  and  recognized  the  visitor  as  an  old  acquaintance,  whom  they 
addressed  as  "  Nu-mohk-mucJc-a-nah"  (the  first  or  only  man).  All 
shook  hands  with  him,  and  invited  him  within  the  picket.  He  then 
harangued  them  for  a  few  minutes,  reminding  them  that  every 
human  being  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  had  been  destroyed  by  the 
water  excepting  himself,  who  had  landed  on  a  high  mountain  in  the 
"West,  in  his  canoe,  where  he  still  resided,  and  from  whence  he  had 
come  to  open  the  Medicine  Lodge,  that  the  Mandans  might  celebrate 
the  subsiding  of  the  waters  and  make  the  proper  sacrifices  to  the 
water,  lest  the  same  calamity  should  again  happen  to  them. 

The  next  moment  he  was  seen  entering  the  village  under  the 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS.  11 

escort  of  the  chiefs,  when  the  cries  and  alarms  of  the  villagers  in 
stantly  ceased,  and  orders  were  given  by  the  chiefs  that  the  women 
and  children  should  all  be  silent  and  retire  within  their  wigwams, 
and  their  dogs  all  to  be  muzzled  during  the  whole  of  that  day,  which 
belonged  to  the  Great  Spirit. 

In  the  midst  of  this  startling  and  thrilling  scene,  which  was  so  well 
acted  out  by  men,  women,  and  children,  and  (apparently)  by  their 
dogs,  I  should  scarcely  have  had  the  nerve  to  have  been  a  close  ob 
server  but  for  the  announcement  by  the  fur-trader,  Mr.  Kipp,  with 
whom  I  was  lodging,  that  this  was  the  beginning  of  the  "  great 
ceremony,"  and  that  I  ought  not  to  lose  a  moment  in  witnessing  its 
commencement,  and  of  making  sketches  of  all  that  transpired. 

"With  this  advice  Mr.  Kipp  had  accompanied  me  to  the  picket, 
where  I  had  a  fair  view  of  the  reception  of  this  strange  visitor  from 
the  West ;  in  appearance  a  very  aged  man,  whose  body  was  naked, 
with  the  exception  of  a  robe  made  of  four  white  wolves'  skins.  His 
body  and  face  and  hair  were  entirely  covered  with  white  clay,  and  he 
closely  resembled,  at  a  little  distance,  a  centenarian  white  man.  In 
his  left  hand  he  extended,  as  he  walked,  a  large  pipe,  which  seemed 
to  be  borne  as  a  very  sacred  thing.  The  procession  moved  to  the 
Medicine  Lodge,  which  this  personage  seemed  to  have  the  only  means 
of  opening.  He  opened  it,  and  entered  it  alone,  it  having  been  (as 
I  was  assured)  superstitiously  closed  during  the  past  year,  and  never 
used  since  the  last  annual  ceremony. 

The  chiefs  then  retired  to  the  Council-house,  leaving  this  strange 
visitor  sole  tenant  of  this  sacred  edifice ;  soon  after  which  he  placed 
himself  at  its  door,  and  called  out  to  the  chiefs  to  furnish  him  "four 
men, — one  from  the  North,  one  from  the  South,  one  from  the  East, 
and  one  from  the  West,  whose  hands  and  feet  were  clean  and  would 
not  profane  the  sacred  temple  while  labouring  within  it  during  that 
day." 

These  four  men  were  soon  produced,  and  they  were  employed 


12  O-KEE-PA,    OF   THE   MANDANS.  , 

during  the  day  in  sweeping  and  cleaning  every  part  of  the  temple, 
and  strewing  the  floor,  which  was  a  concrete  of  gravel  and  clay, 
and  ornamenting  the  sides  of  it,  with  willow  boughs  and  aromatic 
herbs  which  they  gathered  in  the  prairies,  and  otherwise  preparing 
it  for  the  "  Ceremonies"  to  commence  on  the  next  morning. 

During  the  remainder  of  that  day,  while  all  the  Mandans  were 
shut  up  in  their  wigwams,  and  not  allowed  to  go  out,  Nu-mohk- 
muck-a-nah  (the  first  or  only  man)  visited  alone  each  wigwam,  and, 
while  crying  in  front  of  it,  the  owner  appeared  and  asked,  "  Who's 
there?"  and  a"W~hat  was  wanting?"  To  this  Nu-mohk-muck-a- 
nah  replied  by  relating  the  destruction  of  all  the  human  family 
by  the  Flood,  excepting  himself,  who  had  been  saved  in  his  "Big 
Canoe,"  and  now  'dwelt  in  the  West;  that  he  had  come  to  open 
the  Medicine  Lodge,  that  the  Mandans  might  make  the  necessary  sacri 
fices  to  the  water,  and  for  this  purpose  it  was  requisite  that  he 
should  receive  at  the  door  of  every  Mandan's  wigwam  some  edged 
tool  to  be  given  to  the  water  as  a  sacrifice,  as  it  was  with  such  tools 
that  the  "Big  Canoe"  was  built. 

He  then  demanded  and  received  at  the  door  of  every  Mandan 
wigwam,  some  edged  or  pointed  tool  or  instrument  made  of  iron  or 
steel,  which  seemed  to  have  been  procured  and  held  in  readiness  for 
the  occasion ;  with  these  he  returned  to  the  Medicine  Lodge  at  even 
ing,  where  he  deposited  them,  and  where  they  remained  during  the 
four  days  of  the  ceremony,  and  were,  as  will  be  seen,  on  the  last  day 
at  sundown,  in  the  presence  of  the  chiefs  and  all  the  tribe,  to  be 
thrown  into  deep  water  from  the  top  of  the  rocks,  and  thus  made  a 
sacrifice  to  the  water. 

Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah  rested  alone  in  the  Medicine  Lodge  during 
that  night,  and  at  sunrise  the  next  morning,  in  front  of  the  lodge, 
called  out  for  all  the  young  men  who  were  candidates  for  the 
0-/cee-pa  graduation  as  warriors,  to  come  forward, — the  rest  of  the 
villagers  still  enclosed  in  their  wigwams. 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS.  13 

In  a  few  minutes  about  fifty  young  men,  whom  I  learned  were 
all  of  those  of  the  tribe  who  had  arrived  at  maturity  during  the  last 
year,  appeared  in  a  beautiful  group,  their  graceful  limbs  entirely 
denuded,  but  without  exception  covered  with  clay  of  different  colours 
from  head  to  foot, — some  white,  some  red,  some  yellow,  and  others 
blue  and  green,  each  one  carrying  his  shield  of  bull's  hide  on  his  left 
arm,  and  his  bow  in  his  left  hand,  and  his  medicine  lag  in  the  right. 

In  this  plight  they  followed  Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah  into  the  Medi 
cine  Lodge  in  "  Indian  file,"  and  taking  their  positions  around  the 
sides  of  the  lodge,  each  one  hung  his  bow  and  quiver,  shield  and 
medicine-lag  over  him  as  he  reclined  upon  the  floor  of  the  wigwam. 

Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah  then  called  into  the  Medicine  Lodge  the 
principal  medicine  man  of  the  tribe,  whom  he  appointed  0-kee-pa- 
ka-see-ka  (Keeper  or  Conductor  of  the  Ceremonies),  by  passing  into 
his  hand  the  large  pipe  which  he  had  so  carefully  brought  with 
him,  "  which  had  been  saved  in  the  big  canoe  with  him,"  and  on 
which  it  will  appear  the  whole  of  these  mysteries  hung. 

Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah  then  took  leave  of  him  by  shaking  hands 
with  him,  and  left  the  Medicine  Lodge,  saying  that  he  would  return  to 
the  West,  where  he  lived,  and  be  back  again  in  just  a  year  to  re 
open  the  Medicine  Lodge.  He  then  passed  through  the  village,  shak 
ing  hands  with  the  chiefs,  and  in  a  few  moments  was  seen  disappear 
ing  over  the  hills  from  whence  he  came  the  day  previous. 

No  more  was  seen  of  this  extraordinary  personage  during  the 
ceremonies,  but  more  will  be  learned  of  him  before  this  description 
is  finished.* 

*  Here  the  question  again  arises,  If  the  Indian  tradition  of  the  Deluge  was  not 
of  Mosaic  origin,  why  was  the  "first  or  only  man"  represented  by  the  Mandans 
as  a  white  man?  and  the  answer  is  the  same  as  that  already  given  as  to  the 
"willow-bough"  and  the  "big  canoe."  The  same  teachers  have  made  these  people 
believe  that  the  first  man  was  a  white  man,  and  they  consequently  so  represent 
him, — a  peculiarity  of  the  Mandans,  not  practised  or  thought  of  in  any  other  tribe 
of  the  American  continent. 


14  O-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS. 

Here  is  the  proper  place  to  relate  the  manner  in  which  I  gained 
admission  into  this  sacred  temple,  and  to  give  the  credit  that  was  due, 
to  the  man  who  kindly  gave  me  permission  to  witness  what  was  pro 
bably  never  seen  before  by  a  white  man,  the  secret  and  sacred  trans 
actions  of  the  interior  of  the  Mandan  Medicine  Lodge,  so  sacred  that 
a  double  door,  with  an  intervening  passage  and  an  armed  sentinel  at 
each  end,  positively  denying  all  access  except  by  permission  of  the 
Conductor  of  the  Ceremonies,  and  strictly  guarding  it  against  the 
approach  or  gaze  of  women,  who,  I  was  told,  had  never  been  allowed 
to  catch  the  slightest  glance  of  its  interior. 

This  interior  had  also  been  too  sacred  a  place  for  the  admission  of 
Mr.  Kipp,  the  fur- trader,  who  had  lived  in  the  village  eight  or  ten 
years ;  but  luckily  for  me,  I  had  completed  a  portrait  the  day  before, 
of  the  renowned  doctor  or  "mystery  man"  to  whom  the  superin 
tendence  of  the  ceremonies  had  just  been  committed,  and  whose 
vanity  had  been  so  much  excited  by  the  painting  that  he  had 
mounted  on  to  a  wigwam  with  it,  holding  it  up  by  the  corners  and 
haranguing  the  villagers,  claiming  that  "he  must  be  the  greatest 
man  among  the  Mandans,  because  I  had  painted  his  portrait  before  I 
had  painted  the  great  chief;  and  that  I  was  the  greatest  '  medicine'* 
of  the  whites,  and  a  great  chief,  because  I  could  make  so  perfect  a 
duplicate  of  him  that  it  set  all  the  women  and  children  laughing  !" 

This  man,  then,  in  charge  of  the  Medicine  Lodge,  seeing  me  with 
one  of  my  men  and  Mr.  Kipp,  the  fur  trader,  standing  in  front  of 
the  door,  came  out,  and  passing  his  arm  through  mine,  politely  led 
me  into  the  lodge,  and  allowing  my  hired  man  and  Mr.  Kipp,  with 
one  of  the  clerks  of  his  establishment,  to  follow.  We  took  our  seats, 
and  were  allowed  to  resume  them  on  the  three  following  days,  oc 
cupying  them  most  of  the  time  from  sunrise  to  sundown ;  and  there 
fore  the  following  description  of  those  scenes,  and  the  paintings 
which  I  then  made  of  them,  and  to  all  of  which  Mr.  Epp  and  the 
other  two  men  attached  their  certificates,  which  are  here  given. 


.^r  ^to 


ra^nr! 

'     '          •  K/Ss  •    f  **•* 


r-— -^      f  s*< 

a-^i 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS.  15 

"  We  hereby  certify  tliafc  we  witnessed,  with  Mr.  Catlin,  in  the  Mandan 
village,  the  ceremonies  represented  in  the  four  paintings  to  which  this  cer 
tificate  refers,  and  that  he  has  therein  represented  those  scenes  as  we  saw 
them  enacted,  without  addition  or  exaggeration. 

"  J.  KIPP,  Agent  of  Missouri  Fur  Company. 
ff  J.  CRAWFORD,  Clerk. 
"ABRAHAM  BOGARD. 

"Mandan  Village,  28/&  July,  1832." 

The  Conductor  or  Master  of  the  Ceremonies  then  took  his  posi 
tion,  reclining  on  the  ground  near  the  fire,  in  the  centre  of  the 
lodge,  with  the  medicine-pipe  in  his  hand,  and  commenced  crying, 
and  continued  to  cry  to  the  Great  Spirit,  while  he  guarded  the  young 
candidates  who  were  reclining  around  the  sides  of  the  lodge,  and  for 
four  days  and  four  nights  were  not  allowed  to  eat,  drink,  or  to  sleep. 
(This  interior,  which  they  called  "  Mee-ne-ro-Jca-Hd-sha" — the  waters 
settle  down, — see  in  Plate  III.) 

By  such,  denial  great  lassitude,  and  even  emaciation,  was  pro 
duced,  preparing  the  young  men  for  the  tortures  which  they  after 
wards  went  through. 

The  Medicine  Lodge,  in  which  they  were  thus  resting  during  the 
four  days,  and  which  I  have  said  was  seventy -five  feet  in  diameter, 
presented  the  most  strange  and  picturesque  appearance.  Its  sides 
were  curiously  decorated  with  willow-boughs  and  aromatic  herbs, 
and  its  floor  (covered  also  with  willow-boughs)  with  a  curious 
arrangement  of  buffalo  and  human  skulls. 

There  were  also  four  articles  of  veneration  and  importance  lying 
on  the  ground,  which  were  sacks,  containing  each  some  three  or 
four  gallons  of  water.  These  seemed  to  be  objects  of  great  super 
stitious  regard,  and  had  been  made  with  much  labour  and  ingenuity, 
being  constructed  of  the  skins  of  the  buffalo's  neck,  and  sewed 
together  in  the  forms  of  large  tortoises  lying  on  their  backs,  each 
having  a  sort  of  tail  made  of  raven's  quills,  and  a  stick  like  a  drum- 


10  0-KEE-PA,  OF   THE    MANDANS. 

stick  lying  on  it,  with  which,  as  will  be  seen  in  a  subsequent  part  of 
the  ceremony,  the  musicians  beat  upon  the  sacks  as  instruments  of 
music  for  their  strange  dances. 

By  the  sides  of  these  sacks,  which  they  called  Eeh-tee-Jca  (drums), 
there  were  two  other  articles  of  equal  importance,  which  they  called 
Eeh-na-de  (rattles),  made  of  dried  undressed  skins,  shaped  into  the 
form  of  gourd-shells,  which  they  also  used,  as  will  be  seen,  as  another 
part  of  the  music  for  their  dances. 

The  sacks  of  water  had  the  appearance  of  great  antiquity,  and 
the  Mandans  pretended  that  the  water  had  been  contained  in  them 
ever  since  the  Deluge.  At  what  time  it  had  been  originally  put 
in,  or  when  replenished,  I  consequently  could  not  learn.  I  made 
several  efforts  to  purchase  one  of  these  tortoise  drums,  so  elaborately 
and  curiously  were  they  embroidered  and  ornamented,  offering  them 
goods  at  the  Fur  Company's  trading-house  to  the  value  of  one  hun 
dred  dollars,  but  they  said  they  were  medicine  (mystery)  things,  and 
therefore  could  not  be  sold  at  any  price. 

Such  was  the  appearance  of  the  interior  of  the  Medicine  Lodge 
during  the  three  first  (and  part  of  the  fourth)  days.  During  the 
three  first  days,  while  things  remained  thus  inside  of  the  Medicine 
Lodge,  there  were  many  curious  and  grotesque  amusements  and 
ceremonies  transpiring  outside  and  around  the  "Big  Canoe." 

The  principal  of  these,  which  they  called  Bel-lohk-na-pick  (the 
bull  dance),  to  the  strict  observance  of  which  they  attributed  the 
coming  of  buffaloes  to  supply  them  with  food,  was  one  of  an  exceed 
ingly  grotesque  and  amusing  character,  and  was  danced  four  times 
on  the  first  day,  eight  times  on  the  second  day,  twelve  times  on  the 
third  day,  and  sixteen  times  on  the  fourth  day,  and  always  around 
the  "Big  Canoe,"  of  which  I  have  already  spoken.  (See  the  "Bull 
Dance,"  Plate  IY.) 

The  chief  actors  in  these  strange  scenes  were  eight  men,  with  the 
entire  skins  of  buffaloes  thrown  over  them,  enabling  them  closely 


Ph.oto-lith  Sirnonau  8r  Toovey. 


PI   6 


I i 


del 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS.  17 

to  imitate  the  appearance  and  motions  of  those  animals,  as  the  bodies 
of  the  dancers  were  kept  in  a  horizontal  position,  the  horns  and 
tails  of  the  animals  remaining  on  the  skins,  and  the  skins  of  the 
animals'  heads  served  as  masks,  through  the  eyes  of  which  the 
dancers  were  looking. 

The  eight  men  were  all  naked  and  painted  exactly  alike,  and  in 
the  most  extraordinary  manner  ;  their  bodies,  limbs,  and  faces  being 
everywhere  covered  with  black,  red,  or  white  paint.  Each  joint  was 
marked  with  two  white  rings,  one  within  the  other,  even  to  the 
joints  in  the  under  jaw,  the  fingers  and  the  toes  *  and  the  abdomens 
were  painted  to  represent  the  face  of  an  infant,  the  navel  represent 
ing  its  mouth.  (See  "  A  Buffalo  Bull,"  Plate  V.*) 

Each  one  of  these  characters  also  had  a  lock  of  buffalo's  hair  tied 
around  the  ankles,  in  his  right  hand  a  rattle  (she-shee-quoin\  and 
a  slender  staff  six  feet  in  length  in  the  other ;  and  carried  on  his 
back,  above  the  buffalo  skin,  a  bundle  of  willow-boughs,  of  the  or 
dinary  size  of  a  bundle  of  wheat.  (See  "  A  Buffalo  Bull  "  dancing, 
Plate  VI.) 

These  eight  men  representing  eight  buffalo  bulls,  being  divided 
into  four  pairs,  took  their  positions  on  the  four  sides  of  the  Ark, 
or  "Big  Canoe"  (as  seen  in  the  general  view,  Plate  IV.),  repre 
senting  thereby  the  four  cardinal  points ;  and  between  each  couple 
of  these,  with  his  back  turned  to  the  "  Big  Canoe,"  was  another 
figure  engaged  in  the  same  dance,  keeping  step  with  the  eight 
buffalo  bulls,  with  a  staff  in  one  hand  and  a  rattle  in  the  other  :  and 
being  four  in  number,  answered  again  to  the  four  cardinal  points. 

The  bodies  of  these  four  men  were  also  entirely  naked,  with  the 
exception  of  beautiful  kilts  of  eagles'  quills  and  ermine,  and  head 
dresses  made  of  the  same  materials. 

*  Whilst  the  handsome  warrior  was  standing  for  the  sketch  here  given,  he  told 
me  that  it  took  eight  men  an  entire  day  to  paint  the  bodies  and  limbs  of  the  eight 
buffaloes,  no  part  of  the  painting  being  done  by  their  own  hands. 

C 


18  O-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MAXDA^TS. 

Two  of  these  figures  were  painted  jet  black  with  charcoal  and 
grease,  whom  they  called  the  night,  and  the  numerous  white  spots 
dotted  over  their  bodies  and  limbs  they  called  stars.  (See  one  of 
these,  Plate  VII.) 

The  other  two,  who  were  painted  from  head  to  foot  as  red  as 
vermilion  could  make  them,  with  white  stripes  up  and  down  over 
their  bodies  and  limbs,  were  called  the  morning  rays  (symbols  of  day). 
(See  one  of  them,  Plate  VII.) 

These  twelve  were  the  only  figures  actually  engaged  in  the  Bull 
dance,  which  was  each  time  repeated  in  the  same  manner  without 
any  apparent  variation.  There  were,  however,  a  great  number  of 
characters,  many  of  them  representing  various  animals  of  the  coun 
try,  engaged  in  giving  the  whole  effect  to  this  strange  scene,  and  all 
of  which  are  worthy  of  a  few  remarks. 

The  bull  dance  was  conducted  by  the  old  master  of  ceremonies 
( 0-Jcee-pa  Ka-see-Jca)  carrying  his  medicine  pipe ;  his  body  entirely 
naked,  and  covered,  as  well  as  his  hair,  with  yellow  clay. 

For  each  time  that  the  bull  dance  was  repeated,  this  man  came 
out  of  the  Medicine  Lodge  with  the  medicine  pipe  in  his  hands,  bring 
ing  with  him  four  old  men  carrying  the  tortoise  drums,  their  bodies 
painted  red,  and  head-dresses  of  eagles'  quills,  and  with  them  another 
old  man  with  the  two  she-shee-quoins  (rattles).  These  took  their 
seats  by  the  side  of  the  "Big  Canoe,"  and  commenced  drumming 
and  rattling  and  singing,  whilst  the  conductor  of  the  ceremonies, 
with  his  medicine  pipe  in  his  hands,  was  leaning  against  the  "Big 
Canoe,"  and  crying  in  his  full  voice  to  the  Great  Spirit,  as  seen  in 
the  general  view,  Plate  IV.  Squatted  on  the  ground,  on  the  oppo 
site  side  of  the  "  Big  Canoe,"  were  two  men  with  skins  of  grizzly  bears 
thrown  over  them,  using  the  skins  as  masks  covering  their  faces. 
Their  bodies  were  naked,  and  painted  with  yellow  clay. 

These  characters,  whom  they  called  grizzly  bears,  were  continually 
growling  and  threatening  to  devour  everything  before  them,  and 


PKoto-lith.  Simonau  ft  ioove\ 


PI.  8. 


Phobo-lith.  Simonau  8t  Too  vex 


0-KEE-PA,    OF    THE    MANDANS.  19 

interfering  with  the  forms  of  the  ceremony.  To  appease  them  and 
keep  them  quiet,  the  women  were  continually  bringing  and  placing 
before  them  dishes  of  meat,  which  were  as  often  snatched  away  and 
carried  to  the  prairies  by  two  men  called  laid  eagles,  whose  bodies 
and  limbs  were  painted  black,  whilst  their  heads  and  feet  and  hands 
were  whitened  with  clay.  These  were  again  chased  upon  the 
prairies  by  a  numerous  group  of  small  boys,  whose  bodies  and  limbs 
were  painted  yellow,  and  their  heads  white,  wearing  tails  of  white 
deer's  hair,  and  whom  they  called  antelopes. 

Besides  these  there  were  two  men  representing  swans,  their 
bodies  naked  and  painted  white,  and  their  noses  and  feet  were 
painted  black. 

There  were  two  men  called  rattlesnakes,  their  bodies  naked  and 
curiously  painted,  resembling  that  reptile  ;  each  holding  a  rattle  in 
one  hand  and  a  bunch  of  wild  sage  in  the  other.  (See  "  A  Eattle- 
snake,"  Plate  YIII.)  There  were  two  beavers,  represented  by  two 
men  entirely  covered  with  dresses  made  of  buffalo  skins,  except 
their  heads,  and  wearing  beavers'  tails  attached  to  their  belts.  (See 
"  A  Beaver,"  Plate  VIII.) 

There  were  two  men  representing  vultures,  their  bodies  naked  and 
painted  brown,  their  heads  and  shoulders  painted  blue,  and  their 
noses  red. 

Two  men  represented  wolves,  their  bodies  naked,  wearing  wolf 
skins.  These  pursued  the  antelopes,  and  whenever  they  overtook 
one  of  them  on  the  prairie  one  or  both  of  the  grizzly  bears  came  up 
and  pretended  to  devour  it,  in  revenge  for  the  antelopes  having 
devoured  the  meat  given  to  the  grizzly  bears  by  the  women. 

All  these  characters  closely  imitated  the  habits  of  the  animals 
they  represented,  and  they  all  had  some  peculiar  and  appropriate 
songs,  which  they  constantly  chanted  and  sang  during  the  dances, 
without  even  themselves  (probably)  knowing  the  meaning  of  them, 
they  being  strictly  medicine  songs,  which  are  kept  profound  secrets 

c  2 


20  O-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS. 

from  those  of  their  own  tribe,  except  those  who  have  been  regularly 
initiated  into  their  medicines  (mysteries)  at  an  early  age,  and  at  an 
exorbitant  price  ;  and  I  therefore  failed  to  get  a  translation  of  them. 

At  the  close  of  each  of  these  bull  dances,  these  representatives  of 
animals  and  birds  all  set  up  the  howl  and  growl  peculiar  to  their 
species,  in  a  deafening  chorus  ;  some  dancing,  some  jumping,  and 
others  (apparently)  flying ;  the  leavers  clapping  with  their  tails, 
the  rattlesnakes  shaking  their  rattles,  the  bears  striking  with  their 
paws,  the  wolves  howling,  and  the  buffaloes  rolling  in  the  sand  or 
rearing  upon  their  hind  feet ;  and  dancing  off  together  to  an  adjoin 
ing  lodge,  where  they  remained  in  a  curious  and  picturesque  group 
until  the  master  of  ceremonies  came  again  out  of  the  Medicine  Lodge, 
and  leaning  as  before  against  the  "  Big  Canoe,"  cried  out  for  all  the 
dancers,  musicians,  and  the  group  of  animals  and  birds  to  gather 
again  around  him. 

This  lodge,  which  was  also  strictly  a  Medicine  Lodge  during  the 
occasion,  and  used  for  painting  and  arranging  all  the  characters,  and 
not  allowed  to  be  entered  during  the  four  days,  except  by  the  persons 
taking  part  in  the  ceremonies,  was  shown  to  me  by  the  conductor  of 
the  ceremonies,  who  sent  a  medicine  man  with  me  to  its  interior 
whilst  the  scene  of  painting  and  ornamenting  their  bodies  for  the 
lull  dance  was  taking  place  ;  and  none  but  the  most  vivid  imagination 
could  ever  conceive  anything  so  peculiar,  so  wild,  and  so  curious  in 
effect  as  this  strange  spectacle  then  presented  to  my  view. 

No  man  painted  himself,  but,  standing  or  lying  naked,  submitted 
like  a  statue  to  the  operations  of  other  hands,  who  were  appointed 
for  the  purpose.  Each  painter  seemed  to  have  his  special  department 
or  peculiar  figure,  and  each  appeared  to  be  working  with  great  care 
and  with  ambition  for  the  applause  of  the  public  when  he  turned  out 
his  figure. 

It  may  be  thought  easy  to  imagine  such  a  group  of  naked  figures, 
and  the  effect  that  the  rude  painting  on  their  bodies  would  have ;  but 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    HANDANS.  21 

I  am  ready  to  declare  that  the  most  creative  imagination  cannot 
appreciate  the  singular  beauty  of  these  graceful  figures  thus  decorated 
with  various  colours,  reclining  in  groups,  or  set  in  rapid  motion ;  it 
was  one  of  those  few  scenes  that  must  be  witnessed  to  be  fully 
appreciated. 

The  first  ordeal  they  all  went  through  in  this  sanctuary  was  that 
of  Tah-Jce-way  Jca-ra-lca  (the  hiding  man),  the  name  given  to  an 
aged  man,  who  was  supplied  with  small  thongs  of  deer's  sinew,  for 
the  purpose  of  obscuring  the  glans  secret,  which  was  uniformly  done 
by  this  operator,  with  all  the  above-named  figures,  by  drawing  the 
prepuce  over  in  front  of  the  glans,  and  tying  it  secure  with  the  sinew, 
and  then  covering  the  private  parts  with  clay,  which  he  took  from  a 
wooden  bowl,  and,  with  his  hand,  plastered  unsparingly  over. 

Of  men  performing  their  respective  parts  in  the  lull  dance, 
representing  the  various  animals,  birds,  and  reptiles  of  the  country, 
there  were  about  forty,  and  forty  boys  representing  antelopes, — 
making  a  group  in  all  of  eighty  figures,  entirely  naked,  and  painted 
from  head  to  foot  in  the  most  fantastic  shapes,  and  of  all  colours,  as 
has  been  described ;  and  the  fifty  young  men  resting  in  the  Medicine 
Lodge,  and  waiting  for  the  infliction  of  their  tortures,  were  also 
naked  and  entirely  covered  with  clay  of  various  colours  (as  has  been 
described),  some  red,  some  yellow,  and  others  blue  and  green ;  so 
that  of  (probably)  one  hundred  and  thirty  persons  engaged  in  these 
picturesque  scenes,  not  one  single  inch  of  the  natural  colour  of  their 
bodies,  their  limbs,  or  their  hair  could  be  seen  ! 

During  each  and  every  one  of  these  bull  dances,  the  four  old  men 
who  were  beating  on  the  sacks  of  water,  were  chanting  forth  their 
supplications  to  the  Great  Spirit  for  the  continuation  of  his  favours, 
in  sending  them  buffaloes  to  supply  them  with  food  for  the  ensuing 
year.  They  were  also  exciting  the  courage  and  fortitude  of  the 
young  men  inside  of  the  Medicine  Lodge,  who  were  listening  to  their 
prayers,  by  telling  them  that  "  the  Great  Spirit  had  opened  his  ears 


22  O-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS. 

in  their  behalf ;  that  the  very  atmosphere  out-of-doors  was  full  of 
peace  and  happiness  for  them  when  they  got  through ;  that  the 
women  and  children  could  hold  the  mouths  and  paws  of  the  grizzly 
bears ;  that  they  had  invoked  from  day  to  day  the  Evil  Spirit ;  that 
they  were  still  challenging  him  to  come,  and  yet  he  had  not  dared  to 
make  his  appearance." 

But,  in  the  midst  of  the  last  dance  on  the  fourth  day,  a  sudden 
alarm  throughout  the  group  announced  the  arrival  of  a  strange 
character  from  the  "West.  Women  were  crying,  dogs  were  howling, 
and  all  eyes  were  turned  to  the  prairie,  where,  a  mile  or  so  in  dis 
tance,  was  seen  an  individual  man  making  his  approach  towards  the 
village  ;  his  colour  was  black,  and  he  was  darting  about  in  different 
directions,  and  in  a  zigzag  course  approached  and  entered  the  village, 
amidst  the  greatest  (apparent)  imaginable  fear  and  consternation  of 
the  women  and  children. 

This  strange  and  frightful  character,  whom  they  called  0-1ce- 
hee-de  (the  owl  or  Evil  Spirit),  darted  through  the  crowd  where  the 
buffalo  dance  was  proceeding  (as  seen  in  Plate  IY.),  alarming  all 
he  came  in  contact  with.  His  body  was  painted  jet  black  with 
pulverized  charcoal  and  grease,  with  rings  of  white  clay  over  his 
limbs  and  body.  Indentations  of  white,  like  huge  teeth,  surrounded 
his  mouth,  and  white  rings  surrounded  his  eyes.  In  his  two  hands 
he  carried  a  sort  of  wand — a  slender  rod  of  eight  feet  in  length,  with 
a  red  ball  at  the  end  of  it,  which  he  slid  about  upon  the  ground  as 
he  ran.  (See  "  0-ke-heVde,"  Plate  IX.) 

On  entering  the  crowd  where  the  buffalo  dance  was  going  on,  he 
directed  his  steps  towards  the  groups  of  women,  who  retreated  in  the 
greatest  alarm,  tumbling  over  each  other  and  screaming  for  help  as 
he  advanced  upon  them.  At  this  moment  of  increased  alarm  the 
screams  of  the  women  had  brought  by  his  side  0-kee-pa-kd-see-ka 
(the  conductor  of  the  ceremonies)  with  his  medicine  pipe,  for  their 
protection.  This  man  had  left  the  "Big  Canoe,"  against  which  he 


latlm  del 


Pkoto-lith.  Sim.onai.1  8c  Toovey. 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS.  23 

was  leaning  and  crying  during  the  dance,  and  now  thrust  his  medicine 
pipe  before  this  hideous  monster,  and,  looking  him  full  in  the  eyes, 
held  him  motionless  under  its  charm,  until  the  women  and  children 
had  withdrawn  from  his  reach. 

The  awkwardness  of  the  position  of  this  blackened  demon,  and 
the  laughable  appearance  of  the  two,  frowning  each  other  in  the  face, 
while  the  women  and  children  and  the  whole  crowd  were  laughing 
at  them,  were  amusing  beyond  the  power  of  description. 

After  a  round  of  hisses  and  groans  from  the  crowd,  and  the 
women  had  retired  to  a  safe  distance,  the  medicine  pipe  was  gradually 
withdrawn,  and  this  vulgar  monster,  whose  wand  was  slowly  lower 
ing  to  the  ground,  gained  power  of  locomotion  again. 

The  conductor  of  the  ceremonies  returned  to  the  "  Big  Canoe," 
and  resumed  his  former  position  and  crying,  as  the  buffalo  dance 
was  still  proceeding,  without  interruption. 

The  Evil  Spirit  in  the  meantime  had  wandered  to  another  part  of 
the  village,  where  the  screams  of  the  women  were  again  heard,  and 
the  conductor  of  the  ceremonies  again  ran  with  the  medicine  pipe  in 
his  hands  to  their  rescue,  and  arriving  just  in  time,  and  holding  this 
monster  in  check  as  before,  enabled  them  again  to  escape. 

In  several  attempts  of  this  kind  the  Evil  Spirit  was  thus  defeated, 
after  which  he  came  wandering  back  amongst  the  dancers,  apparently 
much  fatigued  and  disappointed ;  and  the  women  gradually  advancing 
and  gathering  around  him,  evidently  less  apprehensive  of  danger 
than  a  few  moments  before. 

In  this  distressing  dilemma  he  was  approached  by  an  old  matron, 
who  came  up  slily  behind  him  with  both  hands  full  of  yellow  dirt, 
which  (by  reaching  around  him)  she  suddenly  dashed  in  his  face, 
covering  him  from  head  to  foot  and  changing  his  colour,  as  the  dirt 
adhered  to  the  undried  bears' -grease  on  his  skin.  As  he  turned 
around  he  received  another  handful,  and  another,  from  different 
quarters  ;  and  at  length  another  snatched  his  wand  from  his  hands, 


24  O-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS. 

and  broke  it  across  her  knee  ;  others  grasped  the  broken  parts,  and, 
snapping  them  into  small  bits,  threw  them  into  his  face.  His  power 
was  thus  gone,  and  his  colour  changed :  he  began  then  to  cry,  and, 
bolting  through  the  crowd,  he  made  his  way  to  the  prairies,  where 
he  fell  into  the  hands  of  a  fresh  swarm  of  women  and  girls  (no  doubt 
assembled  there  for  the  purpose)  outside  of  the  picket,  who  hailed 
him  with  screams  and  hisses  and  terms  of  reproach,  whilst  they 
were  escorting  him  for  a  considerable  distance  over  the  prairie,  and 
beating  him  with  sticks  and  dirt. 

He  was  at  length  seen  escaping  from  this  group  of  women,  who 
were  returning  to  the  village,  whilst  he  was  disappearing  over  the 
plains  from  whence  he  had  made  his  first  appearance. 

The  crowd  of  women  entered  the  village,  and  the  area  where  the 
ceremony  was  transpiring,  in  triumph,  and  the  fortunate  one  who 
had  deprived  him  of  his  power  was  escorted  by  two  matrons  on  each 
side.  She  was  then  lifted  by  her  four  female  attendants  on  to  the 
front  of  the  Medicine  Lodge,  directly  over  its  door,  where  she  stood 
and  harangued  the  multitude  for  some  time ;  claiming  that  "  she 
held  the  power  of  creation,  and  also  the  power  of  life  and  death  over 
them  ;  that  she  was  the  father  of  all  the  buffaloes,  and  that  she  could 
make  them  come  or  stay  away,  as  she  pleased." 

She  then  ordered  the  bull  dance  to  be  stopped — the  four  musicians 
to  carry  the  four  tortoise-drums  into  the  Medicine  Lodge.  The  assist 
ant  dancers,  and  all  the  other  characters  taking  parts,  were  ordered 
into  the  dressing  and  painting  lodge.  The  buffalo  and  human  skulls 
on  the  floor  of  the  Medicine  Lodge  (as  seen  in  Plate  III.)  she  ordered 
to  be  hung  on  the  four  posts  (as  seen  in  Plate  X.).  She  invited 
the  chiefs  to  enter  the  Medicine  Lodge,  and  (being  seated)  to  witness 
the  voluntary  tortures  of  the  young  men,  now  to  commence.  She 
ordered  the  conductor  of  the  ceremonies  to  sit  by  the  fire  and  smoke 
the  medicine  pipe,  and  the  operators  to  go  in  with  their  knife  and 
splints,  and  to  commence  the  tortures. 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE   MANDANS.  25 

She  then  called  out  for  and  demanded  the  handsomest  woman's 
dress  in  the  Mandan  village,  which  was  due  to  her  who  had  disarmed 
0-ke-hee-de  and  had  the  power  of  making  all  the  buffaloes  which  the 
Mandans  would  require  during  the  coming  year.  Her  demand  for 
this  beautiful  dress  was  peremptory,  and  she  must  have  it  to  lead  the 
dance  in  the  Feast  of  the  Buffaloes,  to  be  given  that  night. 

The  beautiful  dress  was  then  presented  to  her  by  the  conductor 
of  the  ceremonies,  who  said  to  her,  "  Young  woman,  you  have  gained 
great  fame  this  day ;  and  the  honour  of  leading  the  dance  in  the 
Feast  of  the  Buffaloes,  to  be  given  this  night,  belongs  to  you." 

Thus  ended  the  bull  dance  (bel-lohk-nd-pick)  and  other  amuse 
ments  at  midday  on  the  fourth  day  of  the  0-kee-pa,  preparatory  to 
the  scenes  of  torture  to  take  place  in  the  Medicine  Lodge ;  and  the 
pleasing  moral  from  these  strange  (and  in  some  respects  disgusting) 
modes,  at  once  suggests  itself,  that  in  the  midst  of  their  religious 
ceremony  the  Evil  Spirit  had  made  his  entree  for  the  purpose  of 
doing  mischief,  and,  having  been  defeated  in  all  his  designs  by  the 
magic  power  of  the  medicine  pipe,  on  which  all  those  ceremonies 
hung,  he  had  been  disarmed  and  driven  out  of  the  village  in  disgrace 
by  the  very  part  of  the  community  he  came  to  impose  upon. 

The  bull  dance  and  other  grotesque  scenes  being  finished  outside 
of  the  Medicine  Lodge,  the  torturing  scene  (or  pohlc-hong  as  they  called 
it)  commenced  within,  in  the  following  manner.  (See  Plate  X.) 

The  young  men  reclining  around  the  sides  of  the  Medicine  Lodge 
(before  shown  in  Plate  III.),  who  had  now  reached  the  middle 
of  the  fourth  day  without  eating,  drinking,  or  sleeping,  and  conse 
quently  weakened  and  emaciated,  commenced  to  submit  to  the 
operation  of  the  knife  and  other  instruments  of  torture. 

Two  men,  who  were  to  inflict  the  tortures,  had  taken  their  posi 
tions  near  the  middle  of  the  lodge ;  one,  with  a  large  knife  with  a 
sharp  point  and  two  edges,  which  were  hacked  with  another  knife 
in  order  to  produce  as  much  pain  as  possible,  was  ready  to  make  the 


26  O-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS. 

incisions  through  the  flesh,  and  the  other,  prepared  with  a  handful  of 
splints  of  the  size  of  a  man's  finger,  and  sharpened  at  both  ends,  to 
be  passed  through  the  wounds  as  soon  as  the  knife  was  withdrawn. 

The  bodies  of  these  two  men,  who  were  probably  medicine  men, 
were  painted  red,  with  their  hands  and  feet  black ;  and  the  one  who 
made  the  incisions  with  the  knife  wore  a  mask,  that  the  young  men 
should  never  know  who  gave  them  their  wounds ;  and  on  their 
bodies  and  limbs  they  had  conspicuously  marked  with  paint  the  scars 
which  they  bore,  as  evidence  that  they  had  passed  through  the  same 
ordeal. 

To  these  two  men  one  of  the  emaciated  candidates  at  a  time 
crawled  up,  and  submitted  to  the  knife  (as  seen  in  Plate  X.), 
which  was  passed  under  and  through  the  integuments  and  flesh  taken 
up  between  the  thumb  and  forefinger  of  the  operator,  on  each  arm, 
above  and  below  the  elbow,  over  the  Irachialis  externus  and  the 
extensor  radialis,  and  on  each  leg  above  and  below  the  knee,  over 
the  vastus  externus  and  the  peroneus  ;  and  also  on  each  breast  and  each 
shoulder. 

During  this  painful  operation,  most  of  these  young  men,  as  they 
took  their  position  to  be  operated  upon,  observing  me  taking  notes, 
beckoned  me  to  look  them  in  the  face,  and  sat,  without  the  apparent 
change  of  a  muscle,  smiling  at  me  whilst  the  knife  was  passing 
through  their  flesh,  the  ripping  sound  of  which,  and  the  trickling  of 
blood  over  their  clay-covered  bodies  and  limbs,  filled  my  eyes  with 
irresistible  tears. 

When  these  incisions  were  all  made,  and  the  splints  passed 
through,  a  cord  of  raw  hide  was  lowered  down  through  the  top  of 
the  wigwam,  and  fastened  to  the  splints  on  the  breasts  or  shoulders, 
by  which  the  young  man  was  to  be  raised  up  and  suspended,  by  men 
placed  on  the  top  of  the  lodge  for  the  purpose. 

These  cords  having  been  attached  to  the  splints  on  the  breast  or 
the  shoulders,  each  one  had  his  shield  hung  to  some  one  of  the  splints  : 


tlin  del 


Fhoto  -  U£h  Simonau  8:  Toovej 


0-KEE-BA,    OF   THE    MANDANS.  27 

his  medicine  lag  was  held  in  his  left  hand,  and  a  dried  buffalo  skull 
was  attached  to  the  splint  on  each  lower  leg  and  each  lower  arm,  that 
its  weight  might  prevent  him  from  struggling;  when,  at  a  signal, 
by  striking  the  cord,  the  men  on  top  of  the  lodge  commenced  to  draw 
him  up.  He  was  thus  raised  some  three  or  four  feet  above  the  ground, 
until  the  buffalo  heads  and  other  articles  attached  to  the  wounds 
swung  clear,  when  another  man,  his  body  red  and  his  hands  and  feet 
black,  stepped  up,  and,  with  a  small  pole,  began  to  turn  him  around. 

The  turning  was  slow  at  first,  and  gradually  increased  until 
fainting  ensued,  when  it  ceased.  In  each  case  these  young  men 
submitted  to  the  knife,  to  the  insertion  of  the  splints,  and  even  to 
being  hung  and  lifted  up,  without  a  perceptible  murmur  or  a  groan ; 
but  when  the  turning  commenced,  they  began  crying  in  the  most 
heartrending  tones  to  the  Great  Spirit,  imploring  him  to  enable  them 
to  bear  and  survive  the  painful  ordeal  they  were  entering  on.  This 
piteous  prayer,  the  sounds  of  which  no  imagination  can  ever  reach, 
and  of  which  I  could  get  no  translation,  seemed  to  be  an  established 
form,  ejaculated  alike  by  all,  and  continued  until  fainting  commenced, 
when  it  gradually  ceased. 

In  each  instance  they  were  turned  until  they  fainted  and  their 
cries  were  ended.  Their  heads  hanging  forwards  and  down,  and 
their  tongues  distended,  and  becoming  entirely  motionless  and  silent, 
they  had,  in  each  instance,  the  appearance  of  a  corpse.  (See  Plate 
XI.)  In  this  view,  which  was  sketched  whilst  the  two  young  men 
were  hanging  before  me,  one  is  suspended  by  the  muscles  of  the 
breast,  and  the  other  by  the  muscles  of  the  shoulders,  and  two  of  the 
young  candidates  are  seen  reclining  on  the  ground,  and  waiting  for 
their  turn. 

When  brought  to  this  condition,  without  signs  of  animation,  the 
lookers-on  pronounced  the  word  dead  I  dead  !  when  the  men  who 
had  turned  them  struck  the  cords  with  their  poles,  which  was  the 
signal  for  the  men  on  top  of  the  lodge  to  lower  them  to  the  ground, 


28  O-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS. 

— the  time  of  their  suspension  having  been  from  fifteen  to  twenty 
minutes. 

The  excessive  pain  produced  by  the  turning,  which  was  evinced 
by  the  increased  cries  as  the  rapidity  of  the  turning  increased,  was 
no  doubt  caused  by  the  additional  weight  of  the  buffalo  skulls  upon 
the  splints,  in  consequence  of  their  centrifugal  direction,  caused  by 
the  rapidity  with  which  the  bodies  were  turned,  added  to  the  sicken 
ing  distress  of  the  rotary  motion ;  and  what  that  double  agony 
actually  was,  every  adult  Mandan  knew,  and  probably  no  human 
being  but  a  Mandan  ever  felt. 

After  this  ordeal  (in  which  two  or  three  bodies  were  generally 
hanging  at  the  same  time),  and  the  bodies  were  lowered  to  the 
ground  as  has  been  described,  a  man  advanced  (as  is  seen  in  Plate 
X.)  and  withdrew  the  two  splints  by  which  they  had  been  hung 
up,  they  having  necessarily  been  passed  under  a  portion  of  the 
trapezius  or  pectoral  muscle,  in  order  to  support  the  weight  of  their 
bodies ;  but  leaving  all  the  others  remaining  in  the  flesh,  to  be  got 
rid  of  in  the  manner  yet  to  be  described. 

Each  body  lowered  to  the  ground  appeared  like  a  loathsome  and 
lifeless  corpse.  No  one  was  allowed  to  offer  them  aid  whilst  they 
lay  in  this  condition.  They  were  here  enjoying  their  inestimable 
privilege  of  voluntarily  entrusting  their  lives  to  the  keeping  of  the 
Great  Spirit,  and  chose  to  remain  there  until  the  Great  Spirit  gave 
them  strength  to  get  up  and  walk  away. 

In  each  instance,  as  soon  as  they  got  strength  enough  partly  to 
rise,  and  move  their  bodies  to  another  part  of  the  lodge,  where  there 
sat  a  man  with  a  hatchet  in  his  hand  and  a  dried  buffalo  skull  before 
him,  his  body  red,  his  hands  and  feet  black,  and  wearing  a  mask, 
they  held  up  the  little  finger  of  the  left  hand  (as  seen  in  Plate  X.) 
towards  the  Great  Spirit  (offering  it  as  a  sacrifice,  as  they  thanked 
him  audibly,  for  having  listened  to  their  prayers  and  protected  their 
lives  in  what  they  had  just  gone  through),  and  laid  it  on  the  buffalo 


0-KEE-PA,    OP   THE    MANDANS.  29 

skull,  where  the  man  with  the  mask,  struck  it  off  at  a  blow  with 
the  hatchet,  close  to  the  hand. 

In  several  instances  I  saw  them  offer  immediately  after,  and  give, 
the  /orefinger  of  the  same  hand, — leaving  only  the  two  middle  fingers 
and  the  thumb  to  hold  the  bow,  the  only  weapon  used  in  that  hand. 
Instances  had  been  known,  and  several  such  were  subsequently  shown 
to  me  amongst  the  chiefs  and  warriors,  where  they  had  given  also 
the  little  finger  of  the  right  hand,  a  much  greater  sacrifice;  and 
several  famous  men  of  the  tribe  were  also  shown  to  me,  who  proved, 
by  the  corresponding  scars  on  their  breasts  and  limbs,  which  they 
exhibited  to  me,  that  they  had  been  several  times,  at  their  own 
option,  through  these  horrid  ordeals. 

The  young  men  seemed  to  take  no  care  or  notice  of  the  wounds 
thus  made,  and  neither  bleeding  nor  inflammation  to  any  extent 
ensued,  though  arteries  were  severed, — owing  probably  to  the  checked 
circulation  caused  by  the  reduced  state  to  which  their  four  days  and 
nights  of  fasting  and  other  abstinence  had  brought  them. 

During  the  whole  time  of  this  cruel  part  of  the  ceremonies,  the 
chiefs  and  other  dignitaries  of  the  tribe  were  looking  on,  to  decide 
who  amongst  the  young  men  were  the  hardiest  and  stoutest-hearted, 
who  could  hang  the  longest  by  his  torn  flesh  without  fainting,  and 
who  was  soonest  up  after  he  had  fainted, — that  they  might  decide 
whom  to  appoint  to  lead  a  war  party,  or  to  place  at  the  most  im 
portant  posts,  in  time  of  war. 

As  soon  as  six  or  eight  had  passed  through  the  ordeal  as  above 
described,  they  were  led  out  of  the  Medicine  Lodge,  with  the  weights 
still  hanging  to  their  flesh  and  dragging  on  the  ground,  to  undergo 
another  and  (perhaps)  still  more  painful  mode  of  suffering. 

This  part  of  the  ceremony,  which  they  called  Eeh-Jce-ndh-Tca 
Na-pick  (the  last  race)  (see  Plate  XII.),  took  place  in  presence  of 
the  whole  tribe,  who  were  lookers-on.  For  this  a  circle  was  formed 
by  the  buffalo  dancers  (their  masks  thrown  off)  and  others  who  had 


30  O-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS. 

taken  parts  in  the  bull  dance,  now  wearing  head-dresses  of  eagles' 
quills,  and  all  connected  by  circular  wreaths  of  willow-boughs  held 
in  their  hands,  who  ran,  with  all  possible  speed  and  piercing  yells, 
around  the  "Big  Canoe;"  and  outside  of  that  circle  the  bleeding 
young  men  thus  led  out,  with  all  their  buffalo  skulls  and  other 
weights  hanging  to  the  splints,  and  dragging  on  the  ground,  were 
placed  at  equal  distances,  with  two  athletic  young  men  assigned  to 
each,  one  on  each  side,  their  bodies  painted  one  half  red  and  the  other 
blue,  and  carrying  a  bunch  of  willow-boughs  in  one  hand,  (see  one 
of  them,  Plate  XIII.,)  who  took  them,  by  leather  straps  fastened 
to  the  wrists,  and  ran  with  them  as  fast  as  they  could,  around  the 
"  Big  Canoe;"  the  buffalo  skulls  and  other  weights  still  dragging  on 
the  ground  as  they  ran,  amidst  the  deafening  shouts  of  the  bystanders 
and  the  runners  in  the  inner  circle,  who  raised  their  voices  to  the 
highest  key,  to  drown  the  cries  of  the  poor  fellows  thus  suffering  by 
the  violence  of  their  tortures. 

The  ambition  of  the  young  aspirants  in  this  part  of  the  ceremony 
was  to  decide  who  could  run  the  longest  under  these  circumstances 
without  fainting,  and  who  could  be  soonest  on  his  feet  again  after 
having  been  brought  to  that  extremity.  So  much  were  they  ex 
hausted,  however,  that  the  greater  portion  of  them  fainted  and 
settled  down  before  they  had  run  half  the  circle,  and  were  then 
violently  dragged,  even  (in  some  cases)  with  their  faces  in  the  dirt, 
until  every  weight  attached  to  their  flesh  was  left  behind. 

This  must  be  done  to  produce  honourable  scars,  which  could  not 
be  effected  by  withdrawing  the  splints  endwise ;  the  flesh  must  be 
broken  out,  leaving  a  scar  an  inch  or  more  in  length :  and  in  order  to 
do  this,  there  were  several  instances  where  the  buffalo  skulls  adhered 
so  long  that  they  were  jumped  upon  by  the  bystanders  as  they  were 
being  dragged  at  full  speed,  which  forced  the  splints  out  of  the 
wounds  by  breaking  the  flesh,  and  the  buffalo  skulls  were  left  behind. 

The  tortured  youth,  when  thus  freed  from  all  weights,  was  left 


Photo- tith  Simonau  6c  Toovey. 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS.  31 

upon  the  ground,  appearing  like  a  mangled  corpse,  whilst  his  two 
torturers,  having  dropped  their  willow-boughs,  were  seen  running 
through  the  crowd  towards  the  prairies,  as  if  to  escape  the  punish 
ment  that  would  follow  the  commission  of  a  heinous  crime. 

In  this  pitiable  condition  each  sufferer  was  left,  his  life  again 
entrusted  to  the  keeping  of  the  Great  Spirit,  the  sacredness  of  which 
privilege  no  one  had  a  right  to  infringe  upon  by  offering  a  helping 
hand.  Each  one  in  his  turn  lay  in  this  condition  until  "  the  Great 
Spirit  gave  him  strength  to  rise  upon  his  feet,"  when  he  was  seen, 
covered  with  marks  of  trickling  blood,  staggering  through  the  crowd 
and  entering  his  wigwam,  where  his  wounds  were  probably  dressed, 
and  with  food  and  sleep  his  strength  was  restored. 

The  chiefs  and  other  dignitaries  of  the  tribe  were  all  spectators 
here  also,  deciding  who  amongst  the  young  men  were  the  strongest, 
and  could  run  the  longest  in  the  last  race  without  fainting,  and  whom 
to  appoint  and  promote  accordingly. 

As  soon  as  the  six  or  eight  thus  treated  were  off  from  the 
ground,  as  many  more  were  led  out  of  the  Medicine  Lodge  and  passed 
through  the  same  ordeal,  or  took  some  other  more  painful  mode,  at 
their  own  option,  to  rid  themselves  of  the  splints  and  weights 
attached  to  their  limbs,  until  the  whole  number  of  candidates  were 
disposed  of;  and  on  the  occasion  I  am  describing,  to  the  whole  of 
which  I  was  a  spectator,  I  should  think  that  about  fifty  suffered  in 
succession,  and  in  the  same  manner. 

The  number  of  wounds  inflicted  required  to  be  the  same  on  each, 
and  the  number  of  weights  attached  to  them  the  same,  but  in  both 
stages  of  the  torture  the  candidates  had  their  choice  of  being,  in  the 
first,  suspended  by  the  breasts  or  by  the  shoulders  ;  and  in  the  "last 
race"  of  being  dragged  as  has  been  described,  or  to  wander  about  the 
prairies  from  day  to  day,  and  still  without  food,  until  suppuration  of 
the  wounds  took  place,  and,  by  the  decay  of  the  flesh,  the  dragging 
weights  were  left  behind. 


32  O-XEE-PA,    OF   THE   MANDANS. 

It  was  natural  for  me  to  inquire,  as  I  did,  whether  any  of  these 
young  men  ever  died  in  the  extreme  part  of  this  ceremony,  and  they 
could  tell  me  of  but  one  instance  within  their  recollection,  in  which 
case  the  young  man  was  left  for  three  days  upon  the  ground  (un- 
approached  by  his  relatives  or  by  physicians)  before  they  were  quite 
certain  that  the  Great  Spirit  did  not  intend  to  help  him  away.  They 
all  seemed  to  speak  of  this,  however,  as  an  enviable  fate  rather  than 
as  a  misfortune ;  for  "the  Great  Spirit  had  so  willed  it  for  some 
especial  purpose,  and  no  doubt  for  the  young  man's  benefit." 

After  the  Medicine  Lodge  had  thus  been  cleared  of  its  tortured 
inmates,  the  master  or  conductor  of  ceremonies  returned  to  it  alone, 
and,  gathering  up  the  edged  tools  which  I  have  said  were  deposited 
there,  and  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  water  on  the  last  day  of  the  cere 
mony,  he  proceeded  to  the  bank  of  the  river,  accompanied  by  all  the 
tribe,  in  whose  presence,  and  with  much  form  and  ceremony,  he 
sacrificed  them  by  throwing  them  into  deep  water  from  the  rocks, 
from  which  they  could  never  be  recovered :  and  then  announced 
that  the  Great  Spirit  must  be  thanked  by  all — and  that  the  0-kee-pa 
(religious  ceremony  of  the  Mandans)  was  finished, 
t 

The  sequel  to  this  strange  affair,  and  which  has  been  briefly 
alluded  to,  and  is  yet  to  be  described,  was  the 

"FEAST  OP  THE  BUFFALOES." 

At  the  defeat  of  0-ke-hee-de  (the  Evil  Spirit)  it  will  be  remembered 
that  the  young  woman  who  returned  from  the  prairie  bearing  the 
singular  prize,  and  who  ascended  the  front  of  the  Medicine  Lodge  and 
put  an  end  to  the  bull  dance,  claimed  the  privilege  of  a  beautiful 
dress,  in  which  she  was  to  lead  the  dance  in  the  feast  of  the  buffaloes 
on  that  night. 

The  0-kee-pa  having  been  ended,  and  night  having  approached, 
several  old  men  with  rattles  in  their  hands,  which  they  were  violently 


0-KEE-BA,    OF   THE    MANDANS.  33 

shaking,  perambulated  the  village  in  various  directions  in  the 
character  of  criers,  announcing  that  "the  whole  government  of  the 
Mandans  was  then  in  the  hands  of  one  woman — she  who  had  dis 
armed  the  Evil  Spirit,  and  to  whom  they  were  to  look  during  the 
coming  year  for  buffaloes  to  supply  them  with  food,  and  keep  them 
alive  \  that  all  must  repair  to  their  wigwams  and  not  show  them 
selves  outside  ;  that  the  chiefs  on  that  night  were  old  women ;  that 
they  had  nothing  to  say;  that  no  one  was  allowed  to  be  out  of 
their  wigwams  excepting  the  favoured  ones  whom  Rah-ta-co-puk-chee 
(the  governing  woman)  had  invited  to  be  at  the  feast  of  the  buffaloes 
around  the  '  Big  Canoe/  and  which  was  about  to  commence." 

This  select  party,  which  assembled  and  was  seated  on  the  ground 
in  a  circle,  and  facing  the  "Big  Canoe,"  consisted  (first)  of  the 
eight  men  who  had  danced  the  bull  dance,  with  the  paint  washed  off. 
To  them  strictly  the  feast  was  given,  and  therefore  was  the  feast  of 
the  buffaloes  (and  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  buffalo  feast,  another 
annual  ceremony,  given  in  the  fall  of  the  year,  somewhat  of  a  similar 
character,  but  held  for  a  different  purpose). 

Besides  the  eight  buffaloes  were  the  old  medicine  man,  conductor 
of  the  ceremonies,  the  four  old  men  who  had  beaten  on  the  tortoise- 
drums,  and  the  one  who  had  shaken  the  rattles,  as  musicians,  and 
several  of  the  aged  chiefs  of  the  tribe  ;  and,  added  to  these,  this  new- 
made,  but  temporary  governess  of  the  tribe,  had  invited  some  eight 
or  ten  of  the  young  married  women  of  the  village,  like  herself,  to 
pay  the  extraordinary  respect  that  was  due,  by  the  custom  of  their 
country,  to  the  makers  of  buffaloes  and  to  reverenced  old  age  on  this 
extraordinary  occasion. 

The  commencement  of  the  ceremonies  which  fell  under  this 
woman's  peculiar  management  was  the  feast  of  the  buffaloes  (as  all  the 
men  invited  to  it  were  called  buffaloes),  which  was  handed  around  in 
wooden  bowls  by  herself  and  attendants.  After  this  was  done,  which 
lasted  but  a  few  minutes  (appearing  but  a  minor  part  of  the  affair), 


34  O-KEE-PA,    OP    THE    MANDANS. 

she  charged  a  large  pipe,  which  was  passed  around  amongst  the  men, 
during  which  a  lascivious  dance  was  performed  by  herself  and  female 
companions. 

This  dance  finished,  she  advanced  to  her  first  selected  paramour, 
and,  giving  some  signals  which  seemed  to  be  understood,  passed  her 
hand  gently  under  his  arm,  and,  raising  him  up,  led  him  through  the 
village  and  into  the  prairie,  where,  as  all  the  villagers  and  their  dogs 
were  shut  up  in  their  wigwams,  they  were  free  from  observation  or 
molestation.* 

From  this  excursion  they  returned  separately,  and  the  man  took 
his  seat  again  if  he  chose  to  be  a  candidate  for  further  civilities,  or 
returned  to  his  wigwam.  The  other  women  were  singing  and  going 
through  the  whirl  of  the  dance  in  the  meantime,  and  each  one  in 
viting  her  chosen  paramour,  when  she  was  disposed,  in  the  same 
manner. 

Those  of  the  women  who  returned  from  these  excursions  joined 
again  in  the  continuous  dance,  and  extended  as  many  and  as  varied 
invitations  in  this  way  as  they  desired ;  and  some  of  them,  I  learned, 
as  well  as  of  the  men,  had  taken  several  of  such  promenades  in  the 
course  of  the  evening,  which  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  relieving 
fact  that  though  it  would  have  been  a  most  prejudicial  want  of 
gallantry  on  the  part  of  the  man  to  have  refused  to  go,  yet  the 
trifling  present  of  a  string  of  beads  or  an  awl  saved  him  from  any 
odium  which  might  otherwise  have  been  cast  upon  him. 

This  extraordinary  scene  gradually  closed  by  the  men  returning 
from  the  prairie  to  their  homes,  the  last  of  them  on  the  ground 
pacifying  any  unsatisfied  feelings  there  might  have  been,  by  bestow- 

*  In  the  foregoing  account  of  the  religious  ceremonies,  nothing  has  been  de 
scribed  but  what  I  saw  enacted.  Here,  from  necessity,  I  am  trusting  to  the 
accounts  of  Mr.  Kipp,  of  the  Fur  Company,  and  Mr.  Tilton,  whose  letter  will  be 
seen  in  the  Appendix,  both  of  whom  told  me  they  had  repeatedly  been  invited 
guests  and  sharers  of  these  extraordinary  hospitalities. 


0-KEE-PA,  OF   THE    MANDANS.  35 

ing  liberal  presents  amongst  those  women,  and  agreeing  to  smoke 
the  pipe  of  friendship  with  their  husbands  the  next  day,  which  they 
were  bound  to  offer,  and  the  others,  by  the  custom  of  the  country, 
were  bound  to  accept. 

It  may  be  met  as  matter  of  surprise,  that  a  religious  ceremony 
should  be  followed  by  a  scene  like  the  one  just  described,  but  before 
we  entirely  condemn  these  ignorant  and  superstitious  people,  let  us 
inquire  whether  it  is  not,  more  or  less,  an  inherent  propensity  in 
human  nature  (and  even  practised  in  some  enlightened  and  Christian 
communities)  to  end  extreme  sorrow,  extreme  penitence,  and  even 
mourning  for  kindred  the  most  loved,  in  debauch  ? 

What  has  thus  far  been  related  has  been  simple  and  easy,  as  it 
has  been  but  the  description  of  what  I  saw  and  what  I  heard  j  but 
what  may  be  expected  of  me — rational  and  conclusive  deductions  from 
the  above  premises — I  approach  with  timidity;  rather  wishing  to 
submit  the  materials  for  the  conclusions  of  others  abler  than  myself 
to  explain  them,  and  for  whose  assistance  I  will  still  continue  a 
few  suggestions. 

That  the  Mandans  should  have  had  a  tradition  of  a  "Deluge" 
is  by  no  means  singular,  when  in  every  tribe  I  have  visited  I  have 
found  that  they  regard  some  high  mountain  in  their  vicinity,  on 
which,  they  say,  their  ancestor  or  ancestors  were  saved,  and  also  re 
late  other  vague  stories  of  the  destruction  of  everything  else  living 
on  the  earth,  by  the  waters. 

But  that  these  people  should  hold  an  annual  celebration  of  that 
event,  and  that  the  season  of  the  year  for  that  celebration  was  decided 
by  such  circumstances  as  the  "  willow  -bough  "  and  its  "  full-grown 
leaves,"  and  the  "medicine  ~bird"  and  the  Medicine  Lodge  opened  by 
such  a  man  as  "  Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah"  who  represented  a  white 
man,  and  some  other  circumstances,  is  surely  a  very  remarkable 
thing,  and,  as  I  think,  deserves  some  further  attention. 

This  "  Nu-mohk-mhck-a-nah  "  (first  or  only  man)  was  undoubtedly 

D  2 


36  O-ZEE-PA,    OF   THE   MANDANS. 

some  very  aged  medicine  man  of  the  tribe,  who  had  gone  out  upon  the 
prairies  on  the  previous  evening,  and  having  dressed  and  painted 
himself  for  the  occasion,  came  into  the  village  at  sunrise  in  the 
morning,  endeavouring  to  keep  up  the  semblance  of  reality ;  for  the 
traditions  of  the  Mandans  say,  that  "  at  an  ancient  period  such  a  man 
did  actually  come  from  the  West,  that  his  skin  was  white,  that  he 
was  very  old,  that  he  appeared  in  all  respects  as  has  been  repre 
sented  ;  and,  as  has  also  been  stated,  that  he  related  the  manner  of 
the  destruction  of  every  human  being  on  the  earth's  surface  by 
the  waters,  excepting  himself,  who  was  saved  in  his  "  Big  Canoe"  by 
landing  on  a  high  mountain  in  the  West ;  that  the  Mandans  and  all 
other  nations  were  his  descendants,  and  were  bound  to  make  annual 
sacrifices  of  edged  tools  to  the  water,  for  with  such  things  his  "  Big 
Canoe"  was  built;  that  he  instructed  the  Mandans  how  to  make 
their  Medicine  Lodge,  and  taught  them  also  the  forms  of  these  annual 
ceremonies,  and  told  them  also  that  as  long  as  they  made  these 
annual  sacrifices  and  performed  these  rites  to  the  full  letter,  they 
would  be  the  favoured  people  of  the  Great  Spirit,  and  would  always 
have  enough  to  eat  and  drink,  and  that  so  soon  as  they  departed  in 
the  least  degree  from  these  forms  their  race  would  begin  to  decrease 
and  finally  die  out. 

These  superstitious  people  have,  no  doubt,  been  living  from  time 
immemorial ,  under  the  dread  of  such  an  injunction,  and  in  the  fear 
of  departing  from  it ;  and  as  they  were  living  in  total  ignorance  of 
its  origin,  other  than  this  vague  tradition,  the  world  will  probably 
remain  in  equal  ignorance  of  much  of  its  meaning,  as  they  needs 
must  be  of  all  Indian  traditions,  which  soon  run  into  fable,  thereby 
losing  much  of  their  system  by  which  they  might  more  easily  have 
been  correctly  construed. 

It  would  seem  from  their  tradition  of  the  willow-bough  and  the 
dove,  that  these  people  must  have  had  some  proximity  to  some  part  of 
the  civilized  world,  or  that  missionaries  or  others  had  been  amongst 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS.  37 

them  teaching  the  Christian  religion  and  the  Mosaic  account  of  the 
Deluge,  which  is  in  this  and  some  other  respects  very  different  from 
the  theories  which  all  the  other  American  tribes  have  distinctly 
established  of  that  event. 

There  are  other  strong,  and  I  think  almost  conclusive  proofs,  in 
support  of  this  suggestion,  which  are  to  be  drawn  from  the  diversity 
of  colour  in  their  hair  and  complexions,  as  well  as  from  their  tra 
ditions  just  related  of  the  " first  or  only  man,"  whose  body  was  white, 
and  who  came  from  the  West,  telling  them  of  the  destruction  of  the 
human  race  by  the  water ;  and  in  addition  to  the  above  I  will  offer 
another  tradition,  related  to  me  by  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  tribe  in 
the  following  way : — 

"  At  a  very  ancient  time  0-ke-Me-de  (the  Evil  Spirit)  came  from 
the  "West  to  the  Mandan  village  in  company  with  Nu-mohk-muck-a- 
nah  (the  first  or  only  man),  and  they,  being  fatigued,  sat  down  upon 
the  ground  near  a  woman  who  had  but  one  eye  and  was  hoeing  corn. 
Her  daughter,  who  was  very  beautiful,  came  up  to  her,  and  the  Evil 
Spirit  desired  her  to  go  and  bring  some  water,  but  wished  that 
before  she  started  she  would  come  to  him  and  eat  some  buffalo 
meat. 

"  He  then  told  her  to  take  a  piece  out  of  his  side,  which  she 'did, 
and  ate  it,  and  it  proved  to  be  buffalo's  fat.  She  then  went  for  the 
water,  which  she  brought,  and  met  them  in  the  village  where  they 
had  walked,  and  they  both  drank  of  it ;  nothing  more  was  done. 
The  friends  of  the  girl  soon  after  endeavoured  to  disgrace  her  by 
telling  her  that  she  was  with  child,  which  she  did  not  deny.  She 
declared  at  the  same  time  her  innocence,  and  boldly  defied  any  man 
in  the  Mandan  nation  to  come  forward  and  accuse  her.  No  one 
could  accuse  her,  and  she  therefore  became  great  ^  medicine J  and 
she  soon  after  went  to  the  little  Mandan  village,  where  the  child  was 
born. 

"  Great  search  was  made  for  her  before  she  was  found,  as  it  was 


38  O-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS. 

expected  that  the  child  also  would  be  great  i  medicine,'  and  in  some 
way  be  of  great  importance  to  the  tribe.  They  were  induced  to  this 
belief  from  the  strange  manner  of  its  conception  and  birth,  and  were 
soon  confirmed  in  their  belief  from  the  wonderful  things  which  it  did 
at  an  early  age.  ^ 

u  Amongst  the  strange  things  which  it  did  on  an  occasion  when 
the  Mandans  were  in  danger  of  starving,  this  child  gave  them  four 
buffalo  bulls,  which  filled  the  bellies  of  the  whole  nation,  leaving  as 
much  meat  as  there  was  before  they  began  to  eat,  and  saying  also 
that  these  four  bulls  would  supply  them  for  ever. 

"  Nu-mohk-muck-a-nah  (the  first  or  only  man)  was  bent  on  the 
destruction  of  this  child,  and  after  making  many  fruitless  searches 
for  it,  found  it  hidden  in  a  dark  place,  and  put  it  to  death  by  throw 
ing  it  into  the  river. 

"  When  0-ke-hte-de  (the  Evil  Spirit)  heard  of  the  death  of  this 
child,  he  sought  for  Nu-mohk-mucJc-a-nah  with  intent  to  kill  him.  He 
traced  him  a  long  distance,  and  at  length  overtook  him  at  the  Heart 
Eiver,  seventy  miles  below  the  Mandan  village,  with  the  ^Mg  medi 
cine  pipe"*  in  his  hands,  the  charm  or  mystery  of  which  protected 
him  from  all  his  enemies.  They  soon  agreed  however  to  become 
good  friends,  and  after  smoking  the  medicine  pipe  they  returned 
together  to  the  Mandan  village. 

"The  Evil  Spirit  was  now  satisfied,  and  Nu-mohJc-muck-a-nah 
told  the  Mandans  never  to  go  beyond  the  mouth  of  Heart  Eiver  to 
live,  for  it  was  the  centre  of  the  world,  and  to  live  beyond  it  would 
be  destruction  to  them,  and  he  named  it  Nat-com-pa-sd-ha  (the 
heart  or  centre  of  the  world)." 

Such  was  one  of  the  very  vague  and  imperfect  traditions  of  those 
curious  people,  and  I  leave  it  to  the  world  to  judge  of  its  similitude 
to  the  Scripture  account  of  the  Christian  advent. 

Omitting  in  this  place  their  numerous  other  traditions  and  super 
stitions,  I  will  barely  refer  to  a  few  singular  deductions  I  have  made 


0-KEE-PA,    OF    THE    MANDANS.  39 

from  the  customs  which  have  been  described,  and  leave  them  for 
the  consideration  of  gentlemen  abler  than  myself  to  decide  upon  their 
importance. 

The  Mandans  believed  that  the  earth  rests  on  the  backs  of  four 
tortoises.  They  say  that  "each  tortoise  rained  ten  days,  making 
forty  days  in  all,  and  the  waters  covered  the  earth." 

"Whenever  a  Mandan  doctor  (medicine  man)  lighted  his  pipe,  he 
invariably  presented  the  stem  of  it  to  the  north,  the  south,  the 
east,  and  the  west,  the  four  cardinal  points,  and  then  upwards  to  the 
Great  Spirit,  before  smoking  it  himself. 

Their  annual  religious  ceremony  lasted  four  days ;  four  men  were 
called  for  by  Nu-mohle-muck-a-nah,  as  has  been  stated,  to  cleanse  and 
prepare  the  Medicine  Lodge,  "one  from  the  north,  one  from  the  south, 
one  from  the  east,  and  one  from  the  west."  Four  was  the  number  of 
tortoise-drums  on  the  floor  of  the  Medicine  Lodge  *  there  were  also 
four  buffalo  and  four  human  skulls  arranged  on  the  floor  of  the 
Medicine  Lodge.  There  were  four  couples  of  dancers  in  the  bull- 
dance,  and  four  intervening  dancers  in  the  same  dance,  as  has  been 
described ;  the  bull-dance  was  repeated  four  times  on  the  first  day, 
eight  times  on  the  second  day,  twelve  times  on  the  third  day,  and 
sixteen  times  on  the  fourth  day,  adding  four  dances  on  each  of  the 
four  days,  which  added  together  make  forty,  the  exact  number  of 
days  that  it  rained  upon  the  earth  to  produce  the  Deluge. 

There  were  four  sacrifices  of  various-coloured  cloths  raised  on 
poles  over  the  Medicine  Lodge.  The  visits  of  0-ke-hee-de  were  paid  to 
four  of  the  buffaloes  in  the  bull-dance ;  and  in  every  instance  of  the 
young  men  who  underwent  the  tortures  explained,  there  were  four 
splints  run  through  the  flesh  on  the  legs,  four  on  the  arms,  four  on 
the  body,  and  four  buffalo-skulls  attached  to  each  one's  wounds. 
And,  as  has  been  related  in  the  tradition  above  given,  four  was  the 
number  of  bulls  given  by  the  medicine  child  to  feed  the  Mandans 
when  they  were  starving. 


40  O-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS. 

Such  were  a  portion,  but  not  all,  of  the  peculiar  modes  of  the 
hospitable  and  friendly  Mandans,  who  have  ceased  to  exist,  and  left 
almost  the  only  tangible  evidence  of  their  having  existed,  in  my 
collection,  which  contains  their  portraits,  their  manufactures,  and 
all  their  modes,  and  which  I  hope  to  preserve  with  success  for  the 
information  of  ages  to  come. 

The  melancholy  fate  of  these  people  was  caused  by  the  intro 
duction  of  the  smallpox,  by  that  nefarious  system  of  traffic  which 
rapidly  increases  the  wealth  of  civilized  individual  adventurers  and 
monopolies  who  introduce  it,  but  everywhere  carries  dissipation, 
poverty,  disease  and  death  to  the  poor  Indians. 

In  the  fourth  summer  after  I  left  the  Mandans,  the  Missouri  Fur 
Company's  steamer  from  St.  Louis,  freighted  with  whiskey  and  mer 
chandise,  and  with  two  of  the  partners  of  that  concern  on  board, 
moored  at  the  shore  of  the  river  in  front  of  the  Mandan  village, 
where  a  traffic  was  carried  on  with  those  unsuspecting  people  whilst 
there  were  two  of  the  vessel's  hands  on  board  sick  with  the  small 
pox  ! 

By  this  act  of  imprudence,  and  in  fact  of  inhuman  cruelty,  the 
disease  was  communicated  to  those  unfortunate  people;  and  such 
were  its  awful  results,  with  the  self-destruction  which  ensued,  that 
in  the  short  space  of  three  months  there  were  but  thirty-two  of  these 
people  left  in  existence,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  who  had  inter 
married  and  were  living  with  the  Minatarrees,  a  friendly  and  neigh 
bouring  tribe. 

A  few  months  after  the  disease  had  subsided,  the  Riccarrees,  a 
hostile  tribe,  living  two  hundred  miles  below,  on  the  bank  of  the 
same  river,  moved  up  and  took  possession  of  the  Mandan  village,  it 
being  a  better  built  town  than  their  own,  and  by  the  side  of  the  Fur 
Company's  factory,  making  slaves  of  the  remaining  Mandans,  who 
were  unable  to  resist. 

Whilst  living  in  this  condition  in  the  Mandan  village,  and  but  a 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS.  41 

few  months  after  they  had  taken  possession,  the  Eiccarrees  were 
attacked  by  a  war-party  of  Sioux,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  desperate 
battle  around  the  pickets,  in  which  the  remaining  Mandans  were 
taking  a  part,  they  suddenly,  at  a  signal,  passed  through  the  pickets 
and  threw  themselves  under  the  horses'  feet  of  the  Sioux,  and  were 
slain  at  their  own  seeking,  rather  than  to  live,  as  they  said,  "dogs  of 
the  Eiccarrees." 

My  authorities  for  these  painful  facts  are  letters  which  I  hold 
from  Mr.  K.  M'Kenzie  and  Mr.  J.  Potts,  written  in  the  Mandan  vil 
lage  after  the  disease  had  subsided.  Both  of  these  gentlemen  were 
from  Edinburgh,  in  Scotland,  the  former  a  partner  in  the  Missouri 
Fur  Company,  and  the  latter  a  clerk  in  the  same  Company.  (See 
these  letters  in  Nos.  3  and  4  in  the  Appendix. 


EEMAEKS. 

In  contemplating  so  many  striking  peculiarities  in  an  extin 
guished  tribe,  the  mind  reluctantly  leaves  so  interesting  a  subject 
without  raising  the  question  as  to  the  origin  of  the  people ;  and  in 
this  feeling,  though  not  within  the  original  intention  of  this  work,  it  is 
difficult  for  me  to  leave  the  subject  without  advancing  my  belief,  and 
furnishing  some  part  of  my  reasons  for  it,  that  many  of  the  modes  of 
these  people  were  purely  Welsh,  and  that  the  personal  appearance 
and  customs  of  the  Mandans  had  been  affected  by  the  proximity  or 
admixture  of  some  wandering  colony  of  Welsh  who  had  been  thrown 
at  an  early  period  somewhere  upon  the  American  coast. 

I  am  here,  perhaps,  advancing  a  startling  problem,  which  de 
mands  at  my  hands  some  striking  proofs,  which  I  will  in  a  fe^f 
words  endeavour  to  produce. 

The  annual  religious  ceremony  which  has  been  described  certainly 
cannot  be  attributed  to  the  Welsh,  nor  am  I  able  to  compare  it  to 


42  O-KEE-PA,    OF    THE    MANDANS. 

any  civilized  custom,  and  I  leave  it  for  the  world  to  decide  whether 
it  bears  a  resemblance  to  any  known  customs  of  savage  or  civilized 
races  in  other  parts  of  the  world. 

It  is  very  strange,  as  I  have  before  said,  that  those  people  should 
have  been  instructed  how  to  hold  those  ceremonies  by  a  white  man, 
and  that  they  should  be  commenced  and  the  Medicine  Lodge  opened 
by  a  white  man,  and  that  the  ubig  canoe"  should  have  been  built 
with  edged  tools,  if  they  be  solely  of  native  origin ;  and  it  would  be 
equally  or  more  strange  if  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  who,  it  would 
seem,  were  the  only  civilized  teachers  we  can  well  suppose  to  have 
reached  these  people,  had  instructed  them  in  modes  like  those, 
though  it  is  easy  to  believe  that  their  teaching  might  have  been  the 
cause  of  the  last  singular  tradition  mentioned,  certainly  bearing  a 
visible  but  very  imperfect  parallel  to  the  Christian  Advent. 

Many  of  the  customs  and  traditions  of  the  western  tribes  convince 
us  that  those  indefatigable  preachers  penetrated  much  further  into 
the  American  wildernesses  than  history  has  followed  them,  and  in  this 
singular  tribe  we  find  the  extraordinary  custom  which  has  been  de 
scribed,  and  others  to  which  I  shall  take  a  few  moments  to  allude, 
neither  of  which  can  with  any  propriety  be  attributed  to  the  teaching 
of  those  venerable  missionaries. 

On  my  arrival  in  their  village,  my  first  glance  amongst  the  Man- 
dans  forced  me,  from  their  peculiar  features  and  complexions,  the  colour 
of  their  eyes  and  hair,  the  singular  mode  of  building  and  furnishing 
their  wigwams,  etc.,  to  believe  that  they  were  an  amalgam  of  some 
foreign  with  an  American  aboriginal  stock,  and  every  day  that  I 
dwelt  amongst  them  furnished  me  additional  convictions  of  this  fact, 
and  of  course  called  on  my  part  for  greater  endeavours  to  account  for 
these  singularities.  And  the  information  I  gathered  amongst  them 
confirmed  me  in  the  opinion  I  have  advanced, — that  many  of  their 
peculiarities  and  customs  were  Welsh,  and  therefore  that  there  ex 
isted  amongst  them  the  remains  of  some  Welsh  colony,  however  diffi 
cult  it  might  be  to  account  for  their  having  got  there. 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS.  43 

The  following,  I  believe,  will  be  received  as  interesting  and  im 
portant  facts,  and  if  they  fail  to  establish  my  theory,  they  may  never 
theless  revive  the  inquiry  as  to  the  direction  and  fate  of  the  expe 
dition  which  "  sailed  in  ten  ships,  under  the  direction  of  Prince 
Madoc,  from  North  Wales,  in  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth  cen 
tury,"  and  which  it  has  been  pretty  clearly  sh5wn,  I  believe,  landed 
somewhere  on  the  coast  of  Florida  or  about  the  mouth  of  the  Missis 
sippi,  and,  according  to  the  history  and  poetry  of  their  own  country, 
"  settled  somewhere  in  the  interior  of  America,  where  they  are  yet 
remaining,  intermixed  with  some  of  the  Indian  tribes.77 

I  have  not  met  in  any  other  tribe  anything  in  personal  appear 
ance  or  customs  that  would  seem  to  account  for  the  direction  of  this 
colony,  but  in  several  of  the  customs  of  this  tribe  which  I  have 
already  described,  as  well  as  in  others  which  I  shall  name,  there 
appeared  to  exist  striking  proofs  of  the  arrival  and  settlement  of  that 
colony  in  the  western  regions  of  America. 

The  Mandan  mode  of  constructing  their  wigwams,  already  de 
scribed,  was  almost  precisely  that  of  the  rude  mode  of  building  their 
cabins  amongst  the  peasantry  of  the  mountains  of  Wales,  and,  as  I 
am  told,  in  some  districts  they  are  building  them  at  the  present  day. 

The  pottery  made  by  the  Man  dans,  to  the  time  of  their  destruc 
tion,  was  strikingly  similar  to  that  manufactured  in  parts  of  Wales 
at  the  present  time,  and  exactly  similar  to  that  found  in  the  tumuli 
on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  and  Muskingum  rivers ;  strongly  suggest 
ing  the  probable  fact  that  those  people  formerly  inhabited  the  banks 
of  those  rivers,  and  by  a  great  number  of  moves  up  the  Missouri  had 
arrived  at  the  place  where  I  found  them. 

A  peculiar  and  very  beautiful  sort  of  Hue  leads  were  also  manu 
factured  by  the  Mandans,  and  of  which  they  were  certainly  the  only 
known  manufacturers  in  America  *  and  since  publishing  my  large 
work  on  the  North  American  Indians,  in  which  I  gave  some  account 
of  this  curious  manufacture,  I  have  received  several  letters  from 


44  O-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS. 

"Welsh  gentlemen  of  science,  one  of  whom  enclosed  me  drawings 
from,  and  another  the  beads  themselves,  found  in  tumuli,  and  also  in 
the  present  progress  of  manufacture  in  Wales,  precisely  the  same  in 
character,  in  shape,  and  in  colour  and  composition,  as  those  in  my 
collection  brought  from  the  Mandans. 

The  manufacture  of  these  blue  beads  by  the  Mandans  was 
guarded  as  a  profound  secret  until  the  time  of  their  destruction, 
although  the  Fur  Company  had  made  them  repeated  and  liberal 
offers  if  they  would  divulge  it,  as  the  Mandan  beads  commanded  a 
much  higher  price  amongst  the  Mandans  and  the  neighbouring  tribes 
to  whom  they  bartered  them,  than  the  beads  introduced  by  the  fur 
traders. 

The  canoes  or  boats  of  the  Mandans,  differing  from  those  of  all 
other  tribes  in  America,  were  precisely  the  Welsh  coracle,  made  of  a 
bull's  hide  stretched  over  a  frame  of  willow  rods,  bent  and  inter 
locked,  and  pulled  over  the  water  by  the  paddle,  in  the  same  manner 
as  the  coracle  is  pulled,  by  reaching  forward  with  the  paddle  instead 
of  passing  it  by  the  side  of  the  boat,  which  is  nearly  round,  and  the 
paddler  seated  or  kneeling  in  its  front. 

From  the  translation  of  their  name,  already  mentioned,  Nu-mah- 
M-kee  (pheasants),  an  important  inference  may  be  drawn  in  support 
of  the  probability  of  their  having  formerly  lived  much  farther  to  the 
south,  as  that  bird  does  not  exist  on  the  prairies  of  the  Upper 
Missouri,  and  is  not  to  be  met  with  short  of  the  heavy  forests  of 
Ohio  and  Indiana,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  miles  south  of  the 
last  residence  of  the  Mandans. 

And  in  their  familiar  name  of  Mandan,  which  is  not  an  Indian 
word,  there  are  equally  singular  and  important  features.  In  the 
first  place,  that  they  knew  nothing  of  the  name  or  how  they  got  it ; 
and  next,  that  the  word  Mandan  in  the  Welsh  language  (it  being 
purely  a  Welsh  word)  means  red  dye,  of  which  further  mention  will 
be  made. 


0-KEE-PA,    OF   THE    MANDANS.  45 

In  the  brief  vocabulary  of  Mandan  words  which  I  published  in 
the  Appendix  to  my  large  work  on  the  North  American  Indians,  it 
has  been  discovered  by  several  Welsh  scholars  that  there  exist  the 
following  most  striking  resemblances,  which  it  would  be  difficult  to 
account  for  in  any  other  way  than  that  which  I  am  now  attempting. 

V 

ENGLISH.  MANDAN.  WELSH. 

I  me  me 

you  ne  cliwe 

lie  e  a 

she  ea  ea 

it  ount  hwynt 

we  noo  ne 

they  eonah  hwna  (maseuUne) 

hona  (feminine) 

no  negosh  nagosh 

head  pan  pen 

The  Great  Spirit  Maho-Peneta        Mawr-Penaethir 

OttflCrolt  L,tls 

From  the  above  evidences,  and  others  which  might  be  produced, 
I  fully  believe,  what  perhaps  will  for  ever  remain  impossible  (posi 
tively)  to  prove,  that  the  ten  ships  commanded  by  the  brother  of 
Prince  Madoc,  or  some  portion  of  them,  entered  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi,  and  advanced  up  that  noble  river  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Ohio,  which  could  easily  have  been  navigated  by  vessels  of  that  date, 
and,  advancing  up  that  river,  which  they  would  naturally  have 
chosen,  as  the  broadest  and  most  gentle  stream,  as  far  as  their  vessels 
could  go,  the  adventurers  planted  themselves  as  agriculturists  on  its 
rich,  and  fertile  banks,  where  they  lived  and  flourished  and  increased 
in  numbers,  until  they  were  attacked,  and  at  last  besieged,  by  the 
numerous  hordes  of  savages  who  were  jealous  of  their  growing  con 
dition  ;  and  as  a  protection  against  the  Indian  assaults  built  those 
civilized  fortifications,  the  remains  of  which  are  so  numerous  on  the 
banks  of  the  Ohio  and  Muskingum  Eivers. 

In  these  defences,  I  believe,  they  were  at  length  all  destroyed 


46  O-KEE-PA,  OF   THE    MANDANS. 

by  the  overpowering  numbers  of  the  savage  hordes,  excepting  those 
few  families  who  had  intermarried  with  the  Indians,  and  whose  oif- 
springs,  being  half -castes,  were  in  such  a  manner  allied  to  them  that 
their  lives  were  spared. 

Those,  as  is  generally  the  case  with  the  half-castes,  I  believe  had 
formed  a  separate  village  in  the  vicinity  of  the  whites,  supporting 
themselves  by  their  embroidery  with  porcupine  quills,  to  which  they 
gave  the  beautiful  dyes  for  which  the  Mandans  have  been  peculiarly 
famous,  and  were  called  by  their  Welsh  neighbours,  and  in  the 
Welsh  language,  the  Mandans  (or  red  dyers). 

These  half-castes,  having  formed  themselves  into  a  separate 
community,  probably  took  up  their  residence,  after  the  destruction 
of  the  whites,  on  the  banks  of  the  Missouri,  on  which,  for  the  want 
of  a  permanent  location  and  right  to  the  soil,  being  on  the  lands  and 
the  hunting-grounds  of  their  more  powerful  enemies,  they  were 
obliged  repeatedly  to  move,  as  the  numerous  marks  of  their  ancient 
residences  show ;  and  continuing  their  moves  up  the  river,  in  time 
migrated  to  the  place  where  I  saw  them,  and  where  they  terminated 
their  existence. 

Thus  much  of  and  for  the  character  and  modes  of  a  peculiar 
people,  who  were  proverbially  intelligent,  hospitable,  and  kind ; 
who,  with  their  language,  have  suddenly  ceased  to  exist;  whose 
character,  history,  modes,  and  personal  appearance,  almost  solely 
existing  in  my  collections,  I  have  considered  , essentially  interesting 
and  important  to  Ethnology,  and  some  of  the  most  remarkable  of 
which  (as  I  have  said)  I  am  here,  from  a  sense  of  duty,  emphatically 
recording  for  the  information  of  those  who  are  to  study  Man  and  his 

modes  after  I  shall  be  gone. 

GEO.  CATLIN. 

EST.  PERPET. 


APPENDIX. 


No.  I.— CERTIFICATE. 

"  We  hereby  certify  that  we  witnessed,  in  company  with  Mr.  Catlin,  in  the 
M  and  an  village,  the  ceremony  represented  in  the  four  paintings  to  which  this 
certificate  refers,  and  that  he  has  therein  represented  those  scenes  as  we  saw 
them  transacted,  without  any  addition  or  exaggeration. 

"  J.  KIPP,  Agent  of  the  American  Fur  Company. 
11 J.  CRAWFORD,  Clerk. 
" ABRAHAM  BOGARD. 
"  Mandan  Village,  28th  July,  1832." 

Witnessing  scenes  so  extraordinary  as  those  described  in  the  foregoing 
pages,  and  so  remote  from  civilization,  I  deemed  it  prudent  to  obtain  the 
above  certificates,  which  were  given  in  the  Mandan  village,  and  inseparably 
attached  to  the  backs  of  my  four  original  oil-paintings  of  those  four  days'  cere 
monies,  made  in  the  Mandan  village,  and  submitted  to  the  examination  and 
approval  of  the  chiefs  and  the  whole  tribe,  and  now  in  my  possession,  entirely 
unchanged. 


No.  II. 

"Fort  Gibson,  Arkansaw,  Jnne  3rd,  1836. 

"  To  GEORGE  CATLIN,  Esq. 
"  Dear  Sir, 

I  have  seen  your  account  of  the  religious  ceremonies  of  the  Maadans, 
and  no  man  will  give  you  so  much  credit  for  it  as  myself.     I  conducted  the 


48  APPENDIX. 

American  Fur  Company's  business  with  the  Maridans  for  eight  years  before 
Mr.  Kipp,  and  was  the  first  white  man  who  ever  learned  to  speak  the  Mandan 
language. 

"  Mr.  Kipp,  Mr.  Crawford,  and  Bogard,  who  Jbave  given  you  their  certifi 
cates,  are  old  acquaintances  of  mine,  and  I  am  glad  you  had  them  with  you. 
All  those  parts  of  the  ceremonies  which  you  describe  as  taking  place  outside  of 
the  Medicine  Lodge, — the  bull  dance,  the  dragging  scene,  etc.,  I  witnessed 
annually  for  eight  years  just  as  you  have  represented  them,  and  I  was  every 
year  an  invited  guest  to  the  "feast  of  the  buffaloes"  but  I  was  always  unable 
to  get  admission  into  the  Medicine  Lodge  to  see  that  part  of  the  tortures  that 
took  place  inside. 

"  TlLTON, 
i(  Sutler  to  the  First  Regiment  of  Mounted  Dragoons." 


No.  III.— DESTRUCTION   OF   THE   MANDANS. 

As  to  the  unlucky  fate  of  the  Mandans,  the  following  letter,  enclosed  to 
me  by  my  esteemed  friend  Thomas  Potts,  Esq.,  of  Edinburgh,  and  now  in  my 
possession,  written  by  his  brother,  who  was  then  a  clerk  in  the  Fur  Company's 
employment,  is  worthy  of  being  read  and  distinctly  understood,  and  will  be 
received  as  undeniable  authority,  as  he  could  have  no  motive  for  misrepresen 
tation. 

"Mandan  Village,  Upper  Missouri,  October  1,  1837. 

"  To  THOMAS  POTTS,  Esq.,  Edinburgh,  Scotland. 
"  Dear  Brother, 

" The  friendly  and  hospitable  tribe  of  Mandans  are  nearly  all 

destroyed  by  the  smallpox.  There  are  but  thirty-two  families  remaining,  and 
those  chiefly  women  and  children ;  these  the  Riccarrees,  who  have  moved  up 
and  taken  possession,  have  turned  out  of  the  village,  after  plundering  them  of 
everything  they  had  on  earth,  and  they  will  all  be  destroyed  by  their  enemies 
the  Sioux,  as  they  have  no  weapons  to  defend  themselves  with. 

"About  sixty  young  warriors,  who  had  recovered  from  the  smallpox,  on 
seeing  how  they  were  disfigured,  put  an  end  to  their  existence  by  stabbing  or 
drowning  themselves.  Nothing  now  but  the  name  of  these  people  remains. 


APPENDIX.  49 

"  The  disease  was  brought  up  by  the  Fur  Company's  steamboat  in  the 
spring :  two  men  on  board  were  sick  with  the  disease  when  the  boat  arrived 
at  the  Mandan  village,  and  the  Mandans  who  went  on  board  caught  the  infec 
tion,  hence  the  almost  total  destruction  of  the  tribe. 

"  The  Indians  are  much  exasperated  against  the  whites ;  indeed,  if  they 
were  not  very  forbearing,  they  would  destroy  every  white  man  in  the  country, 
as  they  have  been  the  cause  of  all  the  distress  and  disease,  which  have 
gone  also  to  all  the  neighbouring  tribes,  and  may  perhaps  depopulate  the  whole 
country.  .  .  . 

"  Your  affectionate  Brother, 

"ANDREW  POTTS." 


No.  IV.— DESTRUCTION   OF   THE   MANDANS. 

In  the  summer  following  the  calamity  of  the  Mandans,  Mr.  Kennith 
M'Kenzie,  at  that  time  chief  factor  of  the  Fur  Company,  and  in  charge  of 
Fort  Union,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yellow  Stone  River,  came  down  to  St.  Louis 
and  New  York,  where  I  had  an  interview  with  him;  and  as  he  was  taking 
leave,  to  return  to  the  Yellow  Stone,  passing  through  the  Mandan  village,  I 
placed  in  his  hands  the  sum  of  fifty  dollars,  and  begged  him  to  procure  and 
send  to  me  any  relics  of  the  Mandans  that  he  might  think  interesting  to  be 
preserved  in  my  Indian  Collection. 

In  the  course  of  the  ensuing  summer  I  received  the  following  letter,  en 
closed  in  a  box  containing  some  articles  procured  for  me,  as  described  within 
it.  Mr.  M'Kenzie,  who  was  from  the  city  of  Edinburgh,  had  treated  me  with 
honour  and  much  kindness  when  I  was  visiting  the  Mandans  and  other  tribes 
on  the  Upper  Missouri  a  few  years  previous,  and  I  never  believed  that  he  had 
any  motive  for  misrepresentation  in  the  following  letter : — 

"  Fort  Mandan,  Mandan  Village,  Upper  Missouri, 
"June,  1839. 

"To  GEORGE  CATLIN,  Esq.,  City  of  New  York. 
"  Dear  Sir, 

" I   have   sent   this  day   by  our  boat  a  box  containing  a  few 

articles  of  Mandan  manufacture,  such  as  I  thought  would  be  of  interest  to 

E 


50  APPENDIX. 

you  for  your  Collection ;  but  as  the  Biccarrees  have  taken  possession  of  the 
Mandan  village  they  have  appropriated  nearly  everything,  and  it  is  impossible 
therefore  to  obtain  what  I  otherwise  would  have  procured  for  you.  I  have 
sent  you,  however,  one  thing  which  you  will  peculiarly  value,— the  famous 
war-knife  of  your  old  friend  Mah-to-toh-pa,  the  war  chief.  This  knife  and  its 
history  you  are  familiar  with. 

"  I  have  also  sent  a  very  beautiful  woman's  robe,  with  a  figure  of  the  sun 
painted  on  it,  a  grizzly  beards-claw  necklace,  and  several  other  articles,  the  best 

I  could  obtain On  reaching  here  I  learn  that  amongst  the  Assiniboins 

and  Crees  about  7000,  and  amongst  the  Blackfeet  15,000,  have  fallen  victims 
to  the  disease,  which  spread  to  those  tribes. 

"  Of  the  Maridans  between  forty  and  fifty  were  all  that  were  left  when  the 
disease  subsided.  The  Riccarrees  soon  after  moved  up  and  took  possession  of 
their  village,  making  slaves  of  the  remaining  Mandans,  and  are  living  in  it  at 
the  present  time. 

"  A  few  months  after  the  Biccarrees  took  possession  they  were  attacked  by 
a  war-party  of  Sioux,  and  in  the  middle  of  the  battle  the  Mandans,  men, 
women,  and  children,  whilst  fighting  for  the  Biccarrees,  at  a  concerted  signal 
ran  through  the  pickets  and  threw  themselves  under  the  horses'  feet  of  the 
Sioux,  and,  still  fighting,  begged  the  Sioux  to  kill  them  '  that  they  might  not 
live  to  be  the  dogs  of  the  Biccarrees/  The  last  of  the  tribe  were  here  slain. 

"  Yours  truly, 

"  KENNITH  M'KENZIE." 

I  might  not  have  encumbered  my  work  with  the  above  certificates  and 
extracts  of  letters  in  my  possession,  were  it  not  that  the  very  Company  who 
have  been  the  cause  of  the  destruction  of  these  people,  to  punish  me  for 
having  condemned  their  system  of  rum  and  whisky  selling,  and  to  veil 
their  iniquities,  have  endeavoured  to  throw  discredit  upon  my  descriptions 
of  the  religious  ceremonies  of  the  Mandans,  and  to  induce  the  world  to 
believe,  contrary  to  my  representations,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  Man- 
dans  still  exist,  and  are  rapidly  increasing  under  the  nourishing  auspices  of  the 
Fur  Company. 

There  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  a  few  straggling  Mandans  who  fled  to  the 
Minatarrees,  or  in  other  directions,  are  still  existing,  nor  any  doubt  but  that 
the  Biccarrees,  since  the  destruction  of  the  Mandans,  have  occupied  to  this 
day  the  Mandan  village,  under  the  range  of  the  guns  of  the  Fur  Company's 
fort,  and  are  exhibited  to  the  passers-by  and  represented  to  the  reading  world 


APPENDIX.  51 

as  surviving  Mandans.  The  policy  of  this  is  easily  understood,  and  the 
reader  who  has  paid  attention  to  the  foregoing  certificates  and  extracts  of 
letters,  added  to  my  own  testimony  as  an  eye-witness,  will  have  no  difficulty 
in  drawing  correct  conclusions  as  to  the  peculiar  customs  and  the  cruel  fate 
of  the  Mandan  Indians. 


Every  reader  of  this  work  will  have  a  knowledge  of,  and  a  respect  for  the 
names  of  Cass  and  Webster,  who  were  familiar  with  my  works  and  also  with 
Indian  history  and  Indian  character. 

Letter  from  GENERAL  CASS,  American  Ambassador  to  France,  and  since , 
Secretary  of  State  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

"  Legation  des  Etats-Unis  a  Paris. 
"  Dear  Sir, 

"  No  man  can  appreciate  better  than  myself  the  admirable  fidelity  of 
your  Indian  Collection  and  Indian  book,  which  I  have  lately  examined.  They 
are  equally  spirited  and  accurate  ;  they  are  true  to  nature.  Things  that  are, 
are  not  sacrificed,  as  they  too  often  are  by  the  painter,  to  things  as  (in  his 
judgment)  they  should  be. 

"  During  eighteen  years  of  my  life  I  was  superintendant  of  Indian  affairs  in 
the  North-west  Territory  of  the  United  States,  and  during  more  than  five  I  was 
Secretary  of  War,  to  which  department  belongs  the  general  control  of  Indian 
concerns.  I  know  the  Indians  thoroughly.  I  have  spent  many  a  month  in 
their  camps,  council-houses,  villages,  and  hunting-grounds;  I  have  fought  with 
them  and  against  them ;  and  I  have  negotiated  seventeen  treaties  of  peace  or 
of  cession  with  them.  I  mention  these  circumstances  to  show  you  that  I 
have  a  good  right  to  speak  confidently  upon  the  subject  of  your  drawings. 
Among  them  I  recognize  many  of  my  old  acquaintances,  and  everywhere  I  am 
struck  with  the  vivid  representations  of  them  and  their  customs,  of  their 
peculiar  features,  and  of  their  costumes.  Unfortunately,  they  are  receding 
before  the  advancing  tide  of  our  population,  and  are  probably  destined  at  no 
distant  day  wholly  to  disappear ;  but  your  Collection  will  preserve  them,  as  far 
as  human  art  can  do,  and  will  form  the  most  perfect  monument  of  an  extin 
guished  race  that  the  world  has  ever  seen." 
"To  GEORGE  CATLIN.  "  LEWIS  CASS." 


52  APPENDIX. 


Extract  from  the  Speech  of  the  Hon.  DANIEL  WEBSTER,  on  a  Motion  in 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  for  the  purchase  of  Catlin's  Indian 
Collection  in  1849. 

"Mr.  President, — The  question  is,  whether  it  does  not  become  us,  as  a 
useful  thing,  to  possess  in  the  United  States  this  collection  of  paintings,  etc., 
made  amongst  the  Indian  tribes  ? — whether  it  is  not  a  case  for  the  exercise  of 
large  liberality,  I  will  not  say  bounty,  but  policy  ?  These  tribes,  Sir,  that  have 
preceded  us,  to  whose  lands  we  have  succeeded,  and  who  have  no  written  me 
morials  of  their  laws,  their  habits,  and  their  manners,  are  all  passing  away  to 
the  land  of  forgetfulness.  Their  likeness,  manners,  and  customs,  are  por 
trayed  with  more  accuracy  and  truth  in  this  Collection  by  Catlin  than  in  all 
the  other  drawings  and  representations  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Somebody  in 
this  country  ought  to  possess  this  Collection, — that  is  my  opinion ;  and  I  do 
not  know  who  there  is,  or  where  there  is  to  be  found,  any  society  or  individual, 
who  or  which  can  with  so  much  propriety  possess  himself  or  itself  of  it  as  the 
Government  of  the  United  Stains.  For  my  part,  then,  I  do  think  that  the 
preservation  of  Catlin's  Indian  Collection  in  this  country  is  an  important  public 
act.  I  think  it  properly  belongs  to  those  accumulations  of  historical  matters 
respecting  our  predecessors  on  this  continent  which  it  is  very  proper  for  the 
Government  of  the  United  States  to  maintain,  As  I  have  said,  this  race  is 
going  into  forgetfulness ;  they  track  the  continuation  of  mankind  in  the  pre 
sent  age,  and  call  recollection  back  to  them.  And  here  they  are  better  ex 
hibited,  in  my  judgment,  better  set  forth  and  presented  to  the  mind,  and  the 
taste  and  the  curiosity  of  mankind,  than  in  all  other  collections  in  the  world.  I 
go  for  this  as  an  American  subject,  as  a  thing  belonging  to  us,  to  our  history,  to 
the  history  of  a  race  whose  lands  we  till,  and  over  whose  obscure  graves  and 
bones  we  tread  every  day.  I  look  upon  it  as  a  thing  more  appropriate  for  us 
than  the  ascertaining  of  the  South  Pole,  or  anything  that  can  be  discovered  in 
the  Dead  Sea  or  the  river  Jordan.  These  are  the  grounds,  Sir,  upon  which  I 
propose  to  proceed,  and  I  shall  vote  for  the  appropriation  with  great  pleasure." 


THE   END. 


j.  E.  TAYLOR  AND  co.,  PRINTERS,  LITTLE  QUEEN  STREET,  HOLBORN. 


J      3 

•i      i 


